We should keep a track of this case as the perpetrator with solid political and financial background may go free after sometime. Sudarshana Chakraborty reports on the case after talking to independent journalists and activists from Bastar.

The New Year started on an ominous note for independent journalists in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. Even as the celebrations petered out, on January 2, 2025, many of them received a worrisome call: Their colleague Mukesh Chandrakar was missing from the evening before, his brother Yukesh informed them.

Journalists in India, especially those who attempt to speak truth to power, often face a risky terrain. The 2017 murder of Gauri Lankesh was reported widely. While that was in posh Bengaluru, the lot of reporters away from metropolises can often find them on even stickier wickets.

Mukesh was not particularly known for toeing the line. On the one hand, the 33-year-old got himself involved between the ultra Lefts and the security forces in perpetual conflict in the central Indian state; on the other, he would pick up daily issues affecting the local people and try to find them a larger audience. He ran Bastar Junction on YouTube as well as doing commissioned assignments from national television channels. One such recent story  involved him turning the spotlight on the poor condition of a stretch of road in his home district of Bijapur that spurred government action.

Clearly, his colleagues were justified in worrying when they received Yukesh’s call and approached the police. The district superintendent of police (SP) formed two search parties — with a journalist accompanying each — but they returned empty-handed after midnight. The next morning, the journalists used an online tool to track the last-known location of Mukesh’s phone. It led them to the house of an engineering contractor, who is related to Mukesh, Pushpa Rokhde, one of the journalists, told Groundxero. They went to report this back to the police but were allegedly asked by the cops not to advise them on how to do their job.

Shooed away by the police, the journalists returned to the location to probe more. They found a septic tank with fresh constructions. Two women working at the site told them that though that tank has been around, it did receive new flooring on January 2 morning, apparently for a new toilet. Some 25-30 labourers worked on it from 8 am – 1 pm. A group of locals who play badminton in the neighbourhood informed that the septic tank lay nondescript even on December 31, when they had practiced last.

The journalists, more than a dozen of them, then held a sit-in at the spot to demand that the structure be demolished, Rokhde said. The protest drew a bevy of senior police officers and eventually their demand was accepted. At 5:20 pm some 6 inches of concrete flooring was removed and the dead body of Mukesh was found inside. The additional superintendent of police as well as the SP reached within 10-15 minutes of the demolition and the dead body was brought out after draining the tank out.

The police arrested some suspects after this, including the contractor Suresh Chandrakar (the prime accused related to Mukesh’s murder) on January 5. According to journalists, these arrests are less to do with any investigation by the police and more thanks to information provided by Yukesh. Suresh was responsible for the defective road stretch mentioned earlier.

An 11-member special investigation team has so far alleged that Suresh and his brothers Riteish and Dinesh had planned and executed the murder. Meanwhile, a purported post-mortem report of Mukesh has leaked into the public domain and has been widely circulated. “It usually takes 8-10 days to get such a report; but this one has landed suddenly, with a doctor’s name and horrific details,” Rokhde said.

She highlighted that though the government boasts of a strong intelligence network and ability to track mobile devices, it all came to nought in Mukesh’s case. Apparently, he had been receiving threats from Suresh’s accomplices since December 29. Had it not been for the journalists’ efforts, the case could have turned cold.

Bastar-based journalist Kamal Shukla, the editor of Bhumkal Samachar, said the police should involve a team of journalists in the investigation and ensure that proper evidence is presented at trial.

Senior journalist Malini Subramaniam said she was shocked by Mukesh’s murder. Initially, she said, the apprehension was that Maoists could have kidnapped him. “Sometimes journalists are asked to go and explain things, which we do,” she told Groundxero.

“Somebody said that they will not dare do something like that to a journalist, but there were also incidents where journalists had been killed. We kept discussing, but eventually a kidnapping by Maoists was ruled out and we kept calling his phone. That Mukesh could be killed by a contractor for exposing him was really shocking,” said Subramaniam.

She was also wary of whether Mukesh would receive justice as the four accused have been transferred to judicial custody within two days of arrest: “Have the police completed all formalities? Anybody arrested for alleged Maoist ties are kept in police custody for 15 days. Why not in this case?” She feared that Suresh might get a bail and walk away. She recommended that the journalist fraternity unite to put pressure at the district level so that the main accused is not let off easily.

She alleged a nexus of politicians, contractors, administration and the police. “On 8 January we covered that entire 33-kilometers stretch (the subject of Mukesh’s report). The road is in a terrible shape. We were looking to talk to representatives from the Public Work Department but found none. The villagers told us a puliya (overbridge) that was constructed had broken down onto the fields. Even the police personnel came running to us saying, ‘please write about this. What kind of road they have made!’”

She underscored the apprehension among local journalists: “Roads are being constructed all round in Bastar amid immense corruption by all departments concerned who would want to cover up this case. The government needs to ensure justice is delivered. That will send out a strong message. Else, corrupt contractors will be emboldened and that will weaken journalists reporting on corruption.”

Rokhde thinks Mukesh’s murder carries a warning for other journalists: To be wary about what they choose to write. “We used to hear of such incidents from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar; but now it is happening here. As it is, it is difficult for us independent journalists to work in disturbed areas like Sukma, Dantewada and Bijapur. If we write against the police they call us Naxals.” She expects the going to get even tougher, especially in the absence of any platform for such journalists. “Already, 4-5 reporters have told me they want to quit.”

Shukla agreed with her and sought a change in conditions in the region as well as outside.

“Reporting on corruption has become extremely difficult in India. In Bastar, the situation is particularly bad and we have lost so many journalist friends,” he told Groundxero. The senior journalist said he himself has received several attacks and threats in his three decades as a journalist and demanded laws protecting the rights of journalists and their proper implementation. Shukla reports on Adivasis in Bastar and the exploitation and violence they face, including extra-judicial killings in the name of combating Maoist insurgency. He has also formed ‘Patrakar Suraksha Kanoon Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti’, a committee to press for laws to protect journalists.

“Mukesh was just the latest, not the first, such target; there was a long list of journalists ether killed or imprisoned on trumped-up charges,” said Ipsa Satakshi, partner of independent journalist Rupesh Kr Singh. He was arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in July 2022 and faces the charge of being linked with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) [CPI (Maoist)]. Singh reported on marginalised and Adivasi communities of Jharkhand.

Satakshi said such murders terrorise others: “The message is clear — whoever acts like him meets the same fate.” Although, brutality beyond a limit turns people fearless, she felt as she pointed out that there has been an outpour on social media following Mukesh’s murder. But she also stressed the need for more people to band together. “Those from well-known journalism schools come together. They are well-connected and speak up together even at small provocations. Journalists in big cities like Delhi or Patna muster a lot of support, but not the likes of Mukesh or Singh despite their work to report the truth. Such journalists risk a lot but hardly receive any support when something goes wrong, until it turns fatal — like in the case of Mukesh.” She recognised the statement by the Press Club of India after Mukesh’s death but sought more concrete follow-up.

For Himangshu Kumar, a veteran human rights activist, the murder of Mukesh was not surprising, especially in a state where putting journalists behind bars on false charges was par for the course. “When you depend on the police force to run the whole administration, the force assumes power to decide everything. Anybody raising a voice against corruption — all the money gobbled up by the police-politician nexus — face attacks. It has been like this for a long.”

He appreciated the media response to the murder as “they have not responded in this manner earlier”. He told Groundxero that “There is no police or Maoist angle in this case, so people feel safe to raise their voice. They usually keep a distance from an issue when the police or Maoists might be involved as people don’t want to be identified as pro-Naxal.”

But Kumar cautioned that “we should keep a track of this case” as “the perpetrator has a solid political and financial background. And he may go free after sometime.” The Gandhian, who has been familiar with Chhattisgarh for more than three decades, was apprehensive that though the police may present a weak case in the court. According to him, most constructions in the region are undertaken under police protection; indirectly, police officers have turned contractors.

Days after the murder, Bihar-based independent journalist Rohin Kumar expressed his frustration on social media: “The murder of fellow journalist Mukesh Chandrakar should make us restless. Not just now but in the future too, until the murderers are punished. In the last eight years, I have covered the murders of about twelve to fifteen journalists. Those who were away from Delhi. Those who were reporting. Those who were crushed by trucks. Those who were shot point blank. Those who were crushed by the mob. People wrote on some of these cases even then. Press Club, Editor Guild issued statements. Formal news was published. Chief Ministers tweeted. But justice was not done in any case. The accused were not jailed. When they were jailed, the case was so weak that there was no difference between jail and bail. Sometimes evidence was not found and sometimes the family was so helpless that a compromise was reached in the case.

The issue is the same that here the matter does not go beyond formal and immediate protest. Everyone backs off. The family keeps fighting alone. I am not even going into the debate about how much journalists working away from Delhi are cheated. There are so many shameless and shameless people here who make dollars by uploading videos of local journalists on Twitter. Without giving a single credit. There is no need to tell anyone how much the people of Delhi use these journalists for free. That’s why… from whom should we expect anything!?

Journalists like Mukesh are true journalists. They do their work. They remain passionate about their work even in poverty. Instead of taking inspiration from them, I have been seeing their ‘journalistic integrity’ being questioned in Delhi.”

Kumar told Groundxero that he knew of the killing of two-three journalists in the Bastar region and some who have been incarcerated after false police complaints: “Journalists who work in small places with limited resources are constantly threatened, cutting across party lines — be it the Congress or the BJP. Contractors work with whoever is in power.”

Kumar also felt that journalists based away from the cities receive a raw deal. Those like Mukesh provide help to journalists from bigger houses with network and logistics in Bastar, in their pursuit of stories on Maoists. “They find the 25-30 kilometres they travel risky. But the likes of Mukesh neither receive proper remuneration nor byline.” Along with the murder of Mukesh, systemic failure within journalism should also be addressed, he felt.

It’s common in such cases that when the victim’s family goes to court they are under extreme pressure; they are pressured and offered money to keep silent. “Whenever you see a CM tweeting after a journalist’s murder, it’s almost sure the case is not only political but also it’s very difficult to get justice,” said Rohin. Rohin sounded skeptical when he said, everything will calm down after a couple of days and then Mukesh’s brother will have to fight a lone battle; no journalists’ organization will come forward to support the cost to fight the legal battle. The need of the time is if we want to support the truly honest and passionate journalists we have to stand with their families. Rohin said, in 12-15 cases of journalists’ murder that he covered, he didn’t see more than 10 days’ of imprisonment in any of the cases and the accused were released, pressure was exerted on families, and in many cases the investigation agencies said – no evidence was found. “Unfortunately those who start writing immediately after such a brutal incident do not generally follow up with the case,” he added.

The Press Club of India could have said that they would take up the legal case of Mukesh’s murder and would start discussion on strengthening laws to ensure protection for journalists – felt Rohin. But the problem remains those who head the press bodies are in close contact with those who hold power in the government, he lamented. The prompt statement from the Press Club of India and Editors’ Guild came as a surprise because usually the independent journalists in digital media or YouTube are not recognized much by them. But, in this case, they realised the public sentiment was strongly with Mukesh, many people including some well-known journalists wrote about him, and this forced them to issue a statement. “What will we do with that statement? Other than appreciating it, what else can we do?” asks Rohin. “A press body must not be ‘toothless’, must not be such that a statement by them means nothing at all,” said Rohin.

“It’ll be very disheartening to say that we are not hopeful of the judiciary because that is the only avenue to get justice. But there are systematic problems in the legal system itself. We don’t want justice after 10 years of the crime being committed. Justice delayed is justice denied. The court should take responsibility so that people don’t lose faith in them, because then it will lead to anarchy if the justice system fails,” stated Rohin. The existing system is good enough but it has become weak. As a young author and journalist Rohin feels the system we have got should be made to work, because forming new organizations or unions of journalists is a resource and time taking process. The existing press bodies should be strengthened; their state chapters can be formed.