A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation booked three Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) leaders including a legislator for their alleged involvement killing of a journalist, the party, which is partner in the ruling alliance, said the ‘gossip of their leaders’ involvement in the case was a conspiracy hatched by the opposition parties.
“We suspect the opposition political parties’ hand to tarnish the image of IPFT , though we are yet to get full details about it. We oppose such gossips of IPFT’s involvement in the incident,” said party’’s assistant general secretary Mangal Debbarma told the media at Agartala Press Club on Monday evening.
Shantanu Bhowmik, a local TV journalist, was hacked to death on last September, amid clashes between two rival indigenous political bodies at Mandwai, around 28 kilometres away from Agartala.
As per the statement issued by the federal crime investigation agency, three IPFT leaders legislator Dhirendra Debbarma and party leaders Balram Debbarma and Amit Debbarma, apart from 300-500 IPFT members, were named as accused in the case.
After two months of Shantanu’s murder, another senior crime reporter of a Bengali daily - Sudip Datta Bhowmik was shot dead reportedly by a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) commandant at RK Nagar, with a distance of 20 kilometres from the capital city.
“ We welcome the decision of CBI investigation for the two journalists’ murder. We demand the CBI to take stern action against the culprits but not at the cost of innocent people and IPFT leaders’ harassment,” said Debbarma.
{{/usCountry}}“ We welcome the decision of CBI investigation for the two journalists’ murder. We demand the CBI to take stern action against the culprits but not at the cost of innocent people and IPFT leaders’ harassment,” said Debbarma.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP-IPFT government after taking charge hand over the invetigaton to the CBI. The previous Left government had decided against a CBI probe and formed two separate Special Investigating Team (SIT) to investigate the murder case.