A journalist was shot dead on Tuesday, allegedly by the bodyguard of a Tripura State Rifles officer in RK Nagar, about 20 km from Agartala, IANS reported. This is the second death of a journalist in Tripura in two months.

Sudip Datta Bhaumik worked with Bengali newspaper, Syandan Patrika, as well as local television news channel, News Vanguard.

“He had gone to meet the commandant of the Second Tripura State Rifles...after obtaining an appointment from him,” Syandan Patrika Editor Subal Dey told The Indian Express. “But when he reached there, he had an altercation with a PSO [post security officer] of the commandant outside the latter’s office, during which the PSO shot at him. Sudip died on the spot.”

Advertisement

West Tripura Superintendent of Police Abhijit Saptarshi told Scroll.in that a rifleman named Nanda Reang has been arrested.

“While a forensic team has visited the spot, post-mortem examination of the deceased has been conducted on camera,” Saptarshi told The Indian Express.

Bhaumik’s body was brought to Agartala, and the officer was arrested, Dey said.

On September 20, journalist Shantanu Bhowmik was killed in Mandai block in Tripura. The 28-year-old died during clashes between members of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura and Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad, the tribal wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).