Two held over journalist’s killing

AGARTALA: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was constituted by the trip ur a government to probe the killing of a journalist by A Tripura STATE RILES (TSR) trooper, arrested two more security personnel, police said.

“Following their investigation, the SIT arrested Naib Subedar Amit Deb-BARMA AND TSR rifleman DHARMENDRA Singh, as they are found to be abettors and conspirators of the killing,” a police OFICIAL SAID.

Police produced them in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court here on Saturday and the court sent them to a seven-day police custody.

With the latest arrests, four security personnel, including ts rs eco nd battalion Commandant Tapan Debbarma, are in custody in connection with the gunning down of the journalist within the battalion headquarters complex on Tuesday.

According to police, TSR Second Battalion rifleman nandu Kumar Reang, following an altercation, shot dead local newspaper journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmik, 50, at Radha Kishore Nagar, 25 km from Agartala.

Reang was the bodyguard of battalion Commandant Tapan Debbarma, who is a senior Tripura POLICE SERVICE (TPS) oficer (1998 batch). The slain journalist had gone to meet Debbarma at the battalion headquarters. both re an ga nd deb bar ma are now in police custody and senior police oficers ARE Interrogating them.

The Press Council of India (PCI) has taken suo motu cognizance of the killing and sought a report from the Tripura government.

Demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the incident, several journalist organisations under A newly-formed platform − Forum For Protection of Journalists (FFPJ) − on Saturday took out a protest rally on Saturday.