The Most Heinous Torture And Murder Of A Journalist

I have been a freelance journalist for 47 years now. But I am a rather ‘soft-focus’ journalist as I deal with cinema, theatre, art, books and other cultural areas. So, I have never faced any danger of being attacked, or threatened by subjects I dealt with, be it filmmakers, films and others within the world of culture and entertainment. Some have cut me out from their ‘interviewees’ list. But otherwise, the journey has been worth it, minus threats, boycotts and threatening telephone calls.

In all these 47 years, though I have kept my eyes and ears open and went through the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of Gauri Lankesh in 2017 and similar committed journalists who were killed in action, I have never, ever read or heard of anything remotely resembling the torture, abuse and killing of Mukesh Chandrakar. On New Year’s Day this year, he left home and never came back.

Who is Mukesh Chandrakar? Besides working with national news outlets as a freelancer, he ran a YouTube channel called Bastar Junction with over 1.6 lakh subscribers which is no mean figure for a small channel being telecast from a small town like Bastar, a district in Chhattisgarh. So, the exposure through his channel about grievous misdealing on works of public welfare was good for the Bastar population and beyond.

Bastar district has a population of 17.06 Lakh.Lakh with a literacy rate of 54.4%, which is lower than the national literacy rate of 74.04%. The rural population stands at 86.31% in the rural areas and 13. 69 % in the urban areas. Bastar is noted for its rich tribal heritage and iconic Chitrakote Waterfalls, Bastar District in southern Chhattisgarh

Though Mukesh came from a very financially backward background having lost his father as a boy, he managed to work as a freelance contributor to several leading television channels including NDTV. He made a name for himself among leading news outlets for his incisive field reports from Bastar. He is also reported to have played an incisive and crucial role in the release of a CoBRA commando abducted by Maoists after the Teluguda massacre of April 21 which witnessed the killing of 29 security personnel. (Times News Network, 4th Jan, 24, 2025).

What irked his killers is his investigative work and direct reporting on his channel about the alleged irregularities in the construction of a road from Gangaloor to Nelasanar village in Bijapur which had led to a probe. The complaint, lodged by his brother, also a journalist, said Mukesh was facing threats from three people linked to the project, including contractor Suresh Chandrakar of Bijapur, said to be a distant relative of Mukesh. It is said that after Mukesh reported on the road scam stories, the authorities that had given the contract began to make enquiries and this is what reportedly raised the hackles of Suresh Chandrakar at Chhatarpara Basti who is considered a kind of small-time bahubali in the area.

On the day Suresh and his other two killers were nabbed by the Chhattisgarh Police, a middle-aged man presented an audiovisual screening on a reel of the real road that led to the brutal killing. The reel revealed that the road had not been repaired at all which presented a danger to the neighbourhoods including schools in the area that got flooded with water during the monsoons. The man describing the so-called road, simply picked a slab off the road and told the reporters who had come to cover this, to take that ‘piece of road’ home.

Mukesh was reported missing when he failed to return home over two days. His brother filed a police complaint. His body was discovered two days later. The findings at the post mortem revealed 15 fractures to his head, his heart ripped out, and his liver split into four pieces. The bone in one of his hands was fractured, and his heart suffered extensive damage. According to a report in The Week. Mukesh was attacked with a heavy object. His body was identified by a tattoo on his hand. Doctors who conducted the autopsy admitted that they had not seen such a horrific case in their 12-year careers.

After the murder, contractor Suresh allegedly disposed of Mukesh’s body in a septic tank. You could see on television, the concrete slab used to cover the corpse. The slab surprisingly revealed that its size covered the body as if it was built to hide a human body. Was the killing premeditated? Mukesh was reportedly summoned by Suresh to meet him in his office. There was an altercation which led to mutual bashing ups and finally, the killing.

The killing must have taken some time to create the damage it had done. How is it that no one seems to have heard his cries, or sounds of the slab being brought to cover the body, or, the perpetrators commanding their helpers to hurry and finish their work? This indicates two bizarre truths.

One, that even if locals heard the cries and other sounds of the altercation between Mukesh and Suresh, they remained silent for fear of the local “bahubali”.

Two, that they were aware that the culprits would soon be released on bail because of the tremendous ‘muscle power’ they wielded in the area over the bigwigs of Bastar near Bijapur. The law and order machinery would first arrest as a “show” to satisfy the scandal-hungry media and then let the criminals free. The Bijapur Police reported, “Three other accused have also been arrested - namely Ritesh Chandrakar, Dinesh Chandrakar and Mahendra. A detailed inquiry is underway."

Between 1992 and 2017, 47 journalists have been killed in India. These 47 are out of 1,305 journalists killed worldwide in these 25 years — either murdered or killed in crossfire or on dangerous assignments. Syed Shujaat Bukhari, a senior Kashmiri journalist, along with his two police bodyguards was fatally shot on 14th June 2018 by assailants in Indian-controlled Kashmir.Bukhari, apart from being a journalist in the former state of J & K, was also the founding editor of Rising Kashmir, a Srinagar-based newspaper.

Between 2015 and 2024, 31 Indian journalists have been killed, making India the seventh-most dangerous country for journalists-at-work. Some names that may be mentioned here are – Ashutosh Srivastava, of Sudarshan TV killed on May 13, 2024, Shashikant Varishe of Mahanagari Times on February 7, 2023, Rohit BIswal of Dharitri killed on a dangerous assignment on February 5 2022 and so the list goes on, recording and documenting the complete lack of safety and precautionary measures for practicing journalists in the country.

Among others are - Sudip Dutta Bhaumik shot dead by a police officer in Tripura, and three journalists who were mowed down by vehicles in back-to-back killings — Navin Singh and Vijay Singh in Bihar, and Sandeep Sharma in Madhya Pradesh. These figures are according to data compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonprofit organisation that campaigns for the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

A reporter noted for his courage to throw up unpleasant but actual truths in the face of his audience often rues the tragedy of doing nothing about creating a solid, functional and objective protective ring around journalists whose coverages are filled with dangers of attack, murder and death. He also points out which no one has till now. Our Constitution, which grants us the Constitutional Right to Equality, has not a single mention about protection of journalists at work. Will this happen? If yes, then when and who will engineer and execute this? Think about it.