Shantanu Bhowmik, a reporter for the local Bengali-language news channel Dinraat, was beaten to death on September 20, 2017, while he covered clashes between members of the separatist Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura and the ruling Tripura Rajya Upajati Ganamukti Parishad party in the northeastern Tripura state near the border with Bangladesh, according to media reports.
A mob used sticks to hit him on his head and legs, according to a report in the English-language Indian Express that quoted an unnamed journalist who was also covering the clashes.
According to the Indian Express, Bhowmik was taking pictures with his mobile phone when members of the crowd attacked him. Swapan Chakraborty, an editor at Dinraat, told CPJ that the last image the station received from Bhowmik was sent at 1:15 p.m.
Later that day, the police found Bhowmik’s body near a stadium, according to media reports.
Akhil Kumar Shukla, director general of Tripura state police said that three people were arrested and are being held in police custody on court order in relation to the journalist’s death, according to a September 28, 2017 report in The Times of India.
When CPJ spoke with Chakraborty in early December 2017, the editor said that four people were now in custody in relation to Bhowmik’s death. The editor described the suspects as belonging to or being supporters of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, and he said no charges had been filed.