NEW DELHI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — The editor of slain journalist Sudip Datta Bhaumick in India’s northeastern state of Tripura claimed his reporter was killed because he had written a series of reports on “financial irregularities and corruption cases” involving a police force commandant.
The alleged police force chief is Tapan Debbarma, commander of the Tripura State Rifles (TSR). “He (Bhaumick) was called by Tapan Debbarma, the commandant of 2nd battalion of TSR, and murdered in cold blood,” Subal Kumar Dey, editor and owner of a Bengali newspaper Syandan Patrika said.
“Bhaumick’s only crime was that he had exposed a number of financial irregularities and corruption cases in which Debbarma was involved.”
Bhaumick was gunned down Tuesday by a constable inside headquarters of TSR at R K Nagar in West Tripura, about 20 km from Agartala, the capital city of Tripura. Following the murder, police arrested the constable and the commandant. “We are investigating the case,” a senior police official said. Reports said Bhaumick also wrote a report about the commander’s alleged extramarital affair.
Dey told media Bhaumick went to meet Debbarma on his invitation. “I told him to go to get his (Debbarma’s) side of story, and also told him to record their conversation, apart from making notes,” Dey said. “A couple of hours later, I got a call from a senior police officer about the incident.”
Meanwhile, the newspapers on Thursday ran blank editorial spaces as a protest to the killing of the journalist.
The killing comes two months after a local TV journalist was hacked to death by mob in the district, when he was covering an agitation by the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT). Analysts say India is becoming a “more dangerous place to practice journalism.” Enditem
