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Journalist Alerts UP Cops About Threat to Life, Yet A Day Later He Dies

Sulabh Srivastava found dead a day after letter to the police
By - KIVLEEN SAHNI
Update: 2021-06-14 13:41 GMT
An ABP Ganga journalist died Sunday night in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh district, a day after he had requested the Prayagraj Additional Director General of Police for protection as he feared his life was in danger from the 'liquor mafia'.

On June 13, the body of journalist Sulabh Srivastava was found near a brick kiln on Katra road. The initial photographs of the body show visible traces of injury on his face and his shirt seemed to have been taken off and his trousers unbuttoned and pulled down.

A letter that Srivastava reportedly had written to the police, citing that his life is in danger, has gone viral on social media.

As per the letter, Srivastava was a Pratapgarh correspondent for ABP Ganga and had recently covered the story of illegal alcohol production and the subsequent raid by the police on factories in the districts of Kunda, Uttar Pradesh.



Srivastava's coverage of this news was run on the ABP Ganga's digital page on June 9, after which, the statement alleges, that Srivastava had heard the 'liquor mafia' was upset with him. In the letter, he has also mentioned that he felt he was being stalked every time he stepped out of his home.

The Prataprarh Police has released a video statement saying that reason behind the death of Sulabh Srivastava was a 'motorcycle accident'.

The statement read by a senior police official in Pratapgarh has said that he was returning home when his motorcycle crashed into a nearby pole and a handpump.



'At around 11 o'clock at night, Sulabh Srivastava was returning to Pratapgarh from Lalgarh on his motorcycle after media coverage. Near the Katra crossroads, he fell from his motorcycle near a brick kiln and was injured. Some labourers present there lifted him from the road and then used his phone to call his friends, and they called an ambulance too. He was taken to the district hospital where the doctors declared him dead,", said in the statement released on Twitter.

A detailed inquiry is still on.

Ever since the letter has gone viral on social media, various journalists and politicians have come out in support of the deceased.

Opposition leader, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has come down heavily on the Yogi Adityanath Government. She tweeted, 'the liquor mafia has killed from Aligarh to Pratapgarh but the UP government is silent. Journalists are asking dangerous questions to expose the truth. The government is asleep."



Aam Aadmi Party's MP Sanjay Singh also tweeted saying, 'The brutal murder of an ABP's journalist. A journalist dies in UP for running a story on the liquor mafia, even when he had written a letter to the ADG a day ago, telling him about this possibility, but everyone was asleep.'



The journalists working with Sulabh Srivastava have also expressed their anger and disappointment.

Astha Kaushik, a TV Journalist at the ABP Ganga remembered her interactions with Srivastava.

She tweeted, 'Don't know how many times Sulabh Srivastava joined me on live/phone. Kept bringing out so much information on the story of the liquor mafia! A journalist risks his life to cover the news... Sulabh keeps pleading for police protection! Why is everyone silent now, why not speak on it!"



Prakash Narayan Singh, the associate editor at ABP NEWS blamed the system for the death of his colleague.

In a tweet, he said, "This is the story. Everything is being recorded. The system is also involved in this suspicious death. Because the faith of justice and security is not high. Will UP ever get freedom from liquor, firearm mafia, police station brokers, land grabbers? There is a swamp in all the parties. The best is independent. Choose good people."



Ravi Shankar Dubey, news reporter at the ABP network remembers how good of a man Srivastava was.

'I have spoken to my organization and have demanded an inquiry into this matter. He was a good man,' Ravi told The Citizen.

Piyush Rai, another senior journalist at The Times of India, has also gone a step ahead to demand a CBI probe into the death of journalist Sulabh Srivastava.



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