Journalist killing: Two more TSR personnel arrested

Agartala: Two more Tripura State Rifles (TSR) personnel were arrested in connection with the killing of journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmick at the para-military force’s 2nd battalion headquarters here, the police said today.

Nayek Amit Debbarma and Rifleman Dharmendra Kumar Singh were arrested last night on the charge of criminal conspiracy for killing journalist Datta Bhowmick at the battalion’s headquarters in R K Nagar, DIG (Southern Range) Arindam Nath told PTI.

They were produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sharmishtha Mukherjee and remanded to police custody for seven days. Datta Bhowmick, a senior crime reporter of local Bengali newspaper ‘Syandan Patrika’, was allegedly shot dead on Tuesday inside the battalion’s headquarters, around 15 km from here, when he had gone there to meet TSR commandant Tapan Debbarma, who was arrested on Wednesday.

The journalist’s mobile phone was recovered from the possession of the commandant. Tapan Debbarma’s personal bodyguard Nandalal Reang was arrested on Tuesday after the killing. Editor of ‘Syandan Patrika’ Subal Kumar Dey had yesterday alleged that Dutta Bhowmik, who had written 11 news items about the Tapan Debbarma’s misdeeds, was called by the commandant and shot inside the battalion’s headquarters.

Tripura Journalist Union (TJU) secretary Pranab Sarkar had said that the Press Council of India (PCI) had taken cognisance of the killing. Datta Bhowmik is the second journalist to have been killed in the state in two months. In September, TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick was killed when he had gone to Mandai in West Tripura district, about 20 km from here, to cover a political event organised by the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT).