Guwahati (The Stellar News): Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) expressed shock over the brutal murder of a rural reporter along with his wife in Sonbhadra locality of Uttar Pradesh and demands stringent punishments to the culprits. The scribe working for a Lucknow-based Hindi daily Uday Paswan died soon after the attack on 16 November 2020. The couple was attacked with sharp weapons while on returning home on a motorcycle and Uday died on the spot. His wife Sheetla Paswan succumbed to injuries next day in the hospital. Initial reports reveal that they had a longtime land dispute with the group of attackers. The police have already arrested five persons for their involvement with the murder.
Earlier Suraj Pandey (25), who worked for a Hindi newspaper, was found dead on a railway track at Sadar Kotwail area on 12 November. His family members in Unnao locality claimed that Pandey was murdered. The police registered a case against a woman inspector (Sunita Chaurasia), her driver (Amar Singh) with a few unidentified person on charges of murder, conspiracy and criminal intimidation. Days back, Bhopal based news channel reporter Syed Adil Wahab (35) was found murdered in a forest area on 8 November. Same day, Tamil scribe Isravel Moses (27) was hacked to death by a group of anti-social persons in Kancheepuram. Tamil Nadu police arrested Manoj Selvam, Venkatesan Sekar, Vignesh Tirumalai and Navamani Duraisamy for the murder.
“The first journo-casualty this year in India was reported from UP’s Unnao locality, where Shubham Mani Tripathi (25), who worked for Hindi daily KampuMail, fell prey to bullets of shooters on 19 June,” said JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria. They also condoled the demise of Guwahati based senior photo journalist and litterateur Mahesh Chandra Medhi, who died today after suffering from illness.
