Raipur:
Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said on Saturday that contractor Suresh Chandrakar, accused of killing a journalist in Bijapur district, is a Congress leader and the state government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.
Sharma told reporters here that three people have been arrested in the murder case, while the main accused Suresh Chandrakar is still absconding.
Describing this incident of brutal murder of the journalist as cruel, the Deputy Chief Minister said that Mukesh Chandrakar was known for his reporting and understanding of issues in the interior areas of Maoist affected area. Sharma said, “The main accused in the case, Suresh Chandrakar, is a Congress leader and party official in the district. He is absconding and four teams have been formed to nab him. He said that three accused Ritesh Chandrakar, Dinesh Chandrakar (relative of Suresh Chandrakar) and supervisor Mahendra Ramteke have been arrested in the case.
He said, “Police have started the process of freezing transactions in the bank accounts of Suresh Chandrakar and other accused. Till now, transactions in three bank accounts of Suresh Chandrakar have been stopped. Sharma said that apart from this, the administration has also started action against illegal properties and encroachments of Suresh Chandrakar.
Officials said that the construction material yard built by Suresh by encroaching on the forest land on the Bijapur-Gangalore road has been demolished with a bulldozer.
He said that the news exposing the alleged corruption in the road construction work in Bijapur was broadcast in ‘NDTV’ on December 25 last year and an investigation was ordered by the Public Works Department on the same day. This news is being said to be the reason for Mukesh’s murder.
- Mukesh Chandrakar worked as a freelance journalist for other news channels including NDTV and also ran a YouTube channel ‘Bastar Junction’, which has about 1.59 lakh subscribers.
- He played an important role in the release of Cobra Commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas from Maoist captivity after the Tekalguda Naxalite attack in Bijapur in April 2021. 22 security personnel were martyred in this incident.
- A senior police officer said that Mukesh Chandrakar had gone missing on the night of January 1 and his elder brother Yukesh Chandrakar had lodged a police complaint the next day.
He told that on the basis of technical analysis of Mukesh’s mobile number, the police got information that Mukesh Chandrakar was present in the contractor’s premises. On Friday, police recovered the body of Mukesh Chandrakar from the septic tank in the premises of contractor Suresh Chandrakar in Chattanpara colony.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by the NDTV team and is published directly from a syndicated feed.)
