Tripura cabinet mum over journalist murder triggered reaction

Agartala, Sep 22: Besides, journalist bodies,’ political parties of Tripura condemned the act of council of ministers headed by Manik Sarkar for not holding any discussion on the murder of young journalist Shantanu Bhowmik (28) by tribal activists on Sep 19 last and not condemned the incident in it’s meeting last evening. While briefing the cabinet meeting, Information Minister Bhanu Lal Saha clearly stated that there was no discussion on the murder of the journalist at Mandwai of West Tripura while he was covering violence erupted between tribal based opposition Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and CPI(M) supporters. “We have discussed on the latest law and order situation following the incident but the issue of slain scribe Shantanu’s death and the follow up demands of the journalist organisations regarding safety and others were not in the agenda of discussion in the meeting. So, naturally there was no discussion on the issue,” Saha said. He further stated that there was condemnation of the murder of Shantanu in cabinet. Immediately, after the murder journalists met Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and demanded to arrest all the culprits and the policemen whose presence Shantanu was picked up and murdered brutally, to provide at least Rs 50 Lakh one time compensation to the deceased family and take sincere steps to ensure journalists’ safety. “It was much expected that the cabinet would discuss over the issues related to journalists, condemned the murder of Shantanu and announced the plan of action of the government but the cabinet did not even spell a single words rather ignored the global media sentiment. We condemn such role of the cabinet who rued after the murder of Gouri Lankesh but mum after brutal murder of a young journalist in their state,” stated Debashis Majumdar, Secretary Tripura Working Journalists’ Association here. He also stated journalists were attacked and assaulted as many as 20 incidents in the state in past two years but in none of the cases, the government ensured exemplary punishment to a single culprit. Latest, when Shantanu was killed in broad daylight in front of police and entire world was crying for such incident, the council of ministers in Tripura was silent and did not feel for the journalists’ sentiment, which is most unfortunate and an issue of concern. However, BJP Pradesh Committee president Biplab Kumar Deb condemned the act of the cabinet and said, “It is indicated that their heart did not bleed because their party had hatched the conspiracy to kill the young and dedicated journalist for their narrow politics. Such ministers are not considered as human being and they lost all morale to remain in power. We have already demanded CBI probe into the murder within 24 hours, as we got the hints of association of CPI(M) in the incident but the council of ministers did not discuss the matter even.” In all previous cases, left front government had handed over the case after destroying entire evidence in the name of enquiry. In case of Shantanu Bhowmik Manik Sarkar took the same tactics to shield the actual criminals for the interest of their narrow politics, Deb said adding that BJP has already taken up the matter at central level and not leave the case unless the criminals are booked. On the other hand, Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Birajit Sinha condemned the act of the cabinet and said that the incident was occurred in front of police but two tribal youths were arrested but no policemn was booked for lapses of their duty, as Shantanu was picked up in presence of police and he was recovered after one and half hours. “We feel it was a deep rooted conspiracy of CPI(M) party where police and administration were involved and unless immediate the case handover to CBI the actual culprits would be set free and there would not be any justice,” Sinha alleged. However, while denying the involvement of IPFT activists in the brutal murder of Shantanu by the tribal activists, IPFT president N C Debbarma has also demanded immediate independent enquiry to find out the truth and added, “Without proper investigation and finding how CPI(M) party and their ministers accusing IPFT for the murder. It is a skillful move to protect the culprits.” UNI