Tripura CM urges Centre to initiate CBI probe into scribes' murder

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has urged the Union government to order a CBI probe into the murders of two journalists in the state last year, sources in the chief minister's office said today.

Deb spoke to Minister of State (MoS) PMO, Jitendra Singh, over phone on Wednesday and urged him to initiate the inquiry following a meeting with members of the Agartala-based Forum for Protection of Journalists (FPJ) at the state secretariat yesterday, officials said.

On September 20, 2017, television journalist Santanu Bhowmik was hacked to death while covering a political event in Mandwi, about 25 km from here.

The then ruling CPI-M had accused the supporters of the tribal party Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) of being involved in the murder. The IPFT had denied responsibility and instead demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder.

In the second incident, senior crime reporter Sudip Dutta Bhowmik was shot dead inside the headquarters of the 2ndbattalion of Tripura State Rifles (TSR), a state paramilitary force, on November 21,2017.

The then Left Front government had formed a special investigation team to probe the death but the scribe's family and the FPJ had demanded a CBI probe.

The BJP had promised before the February state assembly poll that they would hand over the case to the central investigating agency if voted to power.