Battalion commander held for Tripura scribe’s murder

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, November 22

The commandant of the 2nd battalion of the Tripura State Rifles (TSR), Tapan Debbarma, was today arrested in connection with the killing of a journalist inside the battalion headquarters near Agartala yesterday and remanded in police custody for 10 days by a local court.

Superintendent of Police Harkumar Debbarna said the commandant of the counter-insurgency paramilitary force was arrested for conspiring to kill the scribe, Sudip Datta Bhowmik, inside the battalion headquarters at Radhakishore Nagar yesterday.

TSR constable Nandalal Reang, who allegedly shot dead the journalist and was arrested last night, was also sent to police custody for 10 days.

The BJP, meanwhile, has demanded the resignation of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar over “deteriorating” law and order situation in the Left-ruled state even as the saffron party called for a 12-hour Tripura “bandh” tomorrow to protest the murder of the journalist by a man in uniform. 

The state government, for its part, has ordered a CID inquiry. The murder has sparked sharp protests from the media fraternity as well as public all over the Northeast today even as journalists in Tripura staged demonstration in front of Sarkar’s residence demanding exemplary punishment to the culprits. Journalists in Agartala took out a protest march with the body of the slain journalist.

BJP state president Biplab Deb has accused the Left government of letting loose a reign of terror in the state through the state police. “Nobody is safe in Tripura today, the situation is that bad,” he said, demanding a statement from the government on the murder. 

Second killing in two months 

The killing of Sudip Datta Bhowmik was second of a journalist in Tripura in around two months. On September 20, a young journalist, Santanu Bhowmik, was shot dead in the state