Press Council of India takes Suo Moto cognizance of the brutal murder of Journalist Mukesh Chandrakar and asks the govt to submit the detailed report
SUNIL NEGI
The Press Council of India has taken a suo moto cognizance of the brutal murder of the daring journalist of Bijapur, Chattisgarh whose dead body was found in the septic tank. The Press Club of India and The Press Women Corps have issued a very strong worded statement demanding stringent action against the culprits and to bring them to justice at the earliest.
According to the president of Press Club of India Gautam Lahiri the Press Council of India has taken Suo moto cognisance of reported murder of the young journalist in Chhattisgarh.
PCI has directed the Chhattisgarh Government to submit its report on the death of the journalist.
Meanwhile, the senior journalist of Uttarakhand and editor of Nainital Samachar Rajiv Lochan Shah while expressing his serious concern and shock over the gruesome murder of an investigative and daring journalist of Chattisgarh Mukesh Chandrakar wrote on his face book post in Hindi :
The brutal murder of young journalist Mukesh Chandrakar in Bijapur reminds us of the senior journalist Umesh Dobhal episode who was also brutally killed by the liquor mafia of Uttarakhand during eighties. This proves that the dangers of doing honest journalism have not decreased even after 30 years.
When 36-year-old Chandrakar, a reporter for NDTV and who runs a YouTube channel named ‘Bastar Junction’, exposed the massive corruption in a Rs 150 crore road project, the contractor murdered him on the first day of the new year and dumped his body in a septic tank.
The surprising thing is that there is not much discussion about this incident in the media.
At the time of Umesh Dobhal’s disappearance, people from all over the country stood with the journalists of Uttarakhand.
Today that anger is not visible anywhere outside Chhattisgarh, neither in the media nor among the journalists.
Is it that now journalists have also started believing that exposing corruption through the media is wrong and what Mukesh Chandrakar did was not right?
Still, murder is murder and one should be angry and saddened by such death of a fellow professional.
I pay my tribute to martyr Mukesh Chandrakar.
The chief minister of Chattisgarh Vishnu Deo Sai has in a tweet on X , earlier twitter wrote in Hindi : In the Bijapur journalist Mukesh Chandrakar murder case, our government has formed an 11-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of Additional Superintendent of Police, IPS Mayank Gurjar to investigate the case thoroughly. The forensic team is also investigating the incident on the basis of scientific and technical evidence. Three accused in this case have been arrested. Along with this, the illegal construction done by the accused has also been demolished. Such an incident is highly condemnable and to prevent its recurrence, we have given instructions to give the harshest punishment to the accused said the Chattisgarh CM .
