MP govt to enact law for security of journalists: CM Shivraj Chouhan
Journalist Sandeep Sharma’s family and colleagues allege that he was murdered for a report highlighting a nexus between the police and the sand mining mafia.
Nearly a week after a journalist was allegedly murdered for exposing a nexus between police and the sand mining mafia in Chambal region, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday that his government would bring in a law to protect scribes.
“A process to enact law for security of journalists will be initiated in the state,” Chouhan said while addressing the session on the subject ‘Bharat ki Suraksha, Media, Vigyan evam Takneeki ki Bhoomika’ organised under the Media Mahotsav 2018 in Bhopal.
He said the responsibility of media had increased but there was a need to be alert for fake news. Chouhan stressed that every section of the society needed socio-economic security.
On March 26, a journalist working with a news channel in Bhind, was run over by a truck at Bhind. Sandeep Sharma, 35, was on his way to the Press Club at Bhind on his bike when the mowed him down. He died on the spot. Local journalists alleged it was a case of murder as Sharma had exposed the nexus between police and the mafia. Sharma’s family as well the opposition Congress party also alleged he had been murdered.
A day later, Chouhan recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into Sharma’s death.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also issued notices to the state’s chief secretary and director general of police and asked for detailed reports within four weeks.
This is not the first time that journalists have been targeted in the state. In June last year, a 42-year-old journalist working with a Hindi daily was shot dead in Mandsaur district after he had an altercation with some people involved in illegal liquor trade. In June 2015, journalist Sandeep Kothari from Balaghat district was burnt alive, allegedly by the sand mining mafia.
