Dey led a team of crime and investigative reporters [AFP]

Days after the murder of a senior crime reporter, Jyotirmoy Dey, dozens of journalists have gone on a hunger strike in Mumbai's India to demand justice for their slain colleague.

According to reports, Dey, who specialised in reporting on organised crime for the Mumbai-based tabloid, Mid Day, was shot by four unidentified assailants on motorbikes on Saturday.

Lashing out at the slow process of investigation by the state police, a senior journalist, Prashad Kathe demanded an inquiry by the federal police's Central Bureau of Investigation. 

"Today we are starting with a chain hunger strike ... Firstly, we just wanted to say that whatever investigation [has been] going on and the track, which is being chosen, we are not very satisfied with that," Kathe said.

Kathe said the journalists' community wanted a law to prevent attacks on journalists to be produced in the
upcoming monsoon session of the Indian parliament.

Dey's death, "underlines the increasing threat investigative journalists are being subjected to by powerful political and business interests indulging in illegal acts," the Mumbai Press Club said in a statement.

Known for his deep knowledge of the city's underworld and extensive network of informers, Dey led a team of crime and investigative reporters and had authored books on different gangs involved in organised crime in the city.

His killing came a month after gunmen shot at Iqbal Kaksar, brother of the fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, in Mumbai, killing Kaksar's bodyguard.