Tripura CM assures fast-track probe, media persons to stage protest

Agartala/New Delhi, Sept 21: A day after TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick was hacked to death in Mandwai area of West Tripura district, aggrieved journalists and other media persons would stage a protest march in the state capital today to register their strong protest against “growing incidents of violence and insecurity of media personnel”. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar last night assured a delegation of media persons that his government would do utmost to book those responsible for the dastardly killing of TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick. “I cannot give a time frame because investigation is the job of the police, but I can assure you all that no one will be spared and the guilty will be booked,” Mr Sarkar told the delegation. He said in view of violence spreading across many parts of the state especially in the districts of Khowai and West Tripura, the priority of the state police would be to prevent the situation from escalating further. The angry journalists told the Chief Minister that yesterday’s incident could not be taken as a stray incident as journalists and TV cameramen were attacked in the past as well. "Even there are reports and video footage that Bhowmick was attacked in presence of policemen. Immediate actions must be taken against those police personnel," a senior journalist told the Chief Minister and also state DGP A K Shukla. The journalists’ delegation under the aegis of Tripura Working Journalists’ Association also met Governor Tatagatha Roy and said if necessary he should make use of his good office and recommend a CBI inquiry into the killing of 27-year-TV journalist Bhowmick. Several journalists and members of the Association have complained that even till now no arrest has been made and 11 people have been taken into “preventive detention”. The DGP A K Shukla also told the journalists that a proper inquiry will be held at the earliest and the guilty will not be spared. UNI