Press Council team meets Tripura CM Manik Sarkar over journalist deaths

Chief Minister of Tripura Manik Sarkar had earlier formed two separate special investigation teams to probe the killings. (Express Photo)

Chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI) Justice C K Prasad and two of its members on Wednesday met Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and discussed the killing of two journalists in the state, official sources said.

The PCI has earlier taken suo motu cognizance of the killings of Sudip Dutta Bhomick, a reporter of a local vernacular daily ‘Syandan Patrika’ and Shantanu Bhowmick, a reporter of a local TV news channel ‘Dinrat’. The PCI chairman also visited Dutta Bhowmick’s house and talked to his family members and also to different media bodies, including The Agartala Press Club.

The PCI team arrived on Tuesday night on a three-day trip and will also meet Chief Secretary Sanjib Ranjan and DGP A K Shukla. Shantanu Bhowmick was hacked to death on September 20 at Mandai in West Tripura district while covering a political event of a party. Sudip Datta Bhowmick was killed inside the battalion headquarters of Tripura State Rifles on November 21.

Tripura government had earlier formed two separate special investigation teams to probe the killings. The newly formed Forum for Protection of Journalists, an umbrella organisation of ten media bodies, has demanded CBI inquiry into the killing and met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh in Delhi to press for their demand.