Face2News/Guwahati
Leaving aside the lethargy, usually observed in India while proceeding against the killing of media persons, the respective police authorities have taken prompt actions to unearth the mystery of journo-murders in three locations under the Andaman & Nicobar islands, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh States since 1 January 2025.
The media fraternity appreciates the initiative and expresses hope that the perpetrators will be punished under the law so that the victim families get justice in due course of time. The largest democracy on the globe recently lost an online journalist named Sahadev Dey at Diglipur area in the Andaman & Nicobar islands and the local police have already arrested all four accused in the crime. The police in the union territory of India also claimed to crack the sensational murder that took place on 29 March 2025 successfully after arresting S Gangaya, A Rama Subramaniyan, M Ramesh and Bithika Mallick.
According to a police statement, endorsed by Shweta K Sugathan, district police chief of North & Middle Andaman, Debadriti Dey (wife of the victim) lodged a Complaint on 30 March regarding the missing of Dey (38 years old) who was a reporter of digital platform ‘News Republic Andaman’. Dey was vocal against illegal timber smuggling, soil cutting, and hooch racket and gambling in his locality. The Diglipur police station took prompt actions to trace the missing reporter using technical and human intelligence. Finally his burnt body was recovered from DB Gram area the next day.
The police have found Gangaya (who runs a restaurant cum bar at Diglipur) as the mastermind behind the cold blooded murder and he roped in three others to commit the crime and destroy the evidence. The accused persons were produced before the court and now they are in judicial custody as the investigation still goes on. The general public has been requested to share any credible information to their nearest police station through verified phone numbers, which will be kept secret and suitably rewarded by the authorities.
The police have found Gangaya (who runs a restaurant cum bar at Diglipur) as the mastermind behind the cold blooded murder and he roped in three others to commit the crime and destroy the evidence. The accused persons were produced before the court and now they are in judicial custody as the investigation still goes on. The general public has been requested to share any credible information to their nearest police station through verified phone numbers, which will be kept secret and suitably rewarded by the authorities.
In the two previous cases also the police arrested a number of people and court procedures are still going on. In regards to journalist Raghavendra Vajpayee’s murder at Sitapur locality of UP on 8 March, the police suspected the involvement of five individuals, among whom three accused have been arrested, where Vikas Rathore (alias Shivanand Baba) is understood as the mastermind (Nirmal Singh and Aslam Ghazi as his associates). The local correspondent of a popular Hindi daily newspaper, Bajpai (40) also worked as an RTI activist.
Similarly, four individuals have been arrested over the murder of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar (30), whose mutilated body was recovered on 3 January. The Bijapur police arrested the prime accused influential contractor Suresh Chandrakar along with three other suspects. Recently, a 1,200 pages charge-sheet was filed in the court against Suresh, Ritesh, Mahendra and Dinesh.
The architect of digital platform ‘Bastar Junction’, Chandrakar was vocal against the mismanagement of government funds by responsible officials and contractors in his locality and unfortunately paid the ultimate price.
Needless to mention that, the prosecution (conviction) rate for journo-murders across India is very low (nearly zero) precisely in those cases where journalists were killed in relation to their professional work. While the police investigations are found inefficient, the prosecution process gets delayed even after arrests are made because of unnecessary delays in filing charge-sheets. So many culprits escape punishments and enjoy immunity only to encourage others to maintain anti-media activities.
But not only India, the global scenario is also dismal as the UNESCO observatory of killed journalists reported that since 1993, more than 1,700 journalists have been killed globally for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished. Impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems.
While killings are the most extreme form of media censorship, journalists are also subjected to countless threats - ranging from kidnapping, torture and other physical attacks to harassment, particularly in the digital sphere, added the observatory.