The Agartala police have failed to make any headway in the investigation concerning murders of three employees of a local vernacular daily Dainik Ganadoot inviting ire of media organisations. “We are worried about the delay in the Tripura police’s action to nab the killers of three newspaper employees,” the National Federation of Newspaper Employees (NFNE) said in a statement on Tuesday. The organisation also stated that the “Manik Sarkar led Tripura government has not done any visible action to resolve the case”. Signed by Nava Thakuria, Secretary of Guwahati-based zonal committee, the statement said, “Chief Minister Manik Sarkar who also holds the home portfolio ordered the state police to book the criminals and DGP Sanjay Sinha shared information about the collection of some important clues, but astonishingly the police have not succeeded in their task till today”.
The police haven’t made any detentions or arrests until Tuesday, the tenth day of the murders.
Earlier, media organisations in Tripura and the rest of the country condemned the gruesome incident and urged the Tripura government to bring the murderers to justice without delay. They had also demanded adequate compensation and employment to the bereaved families.
The state government has urged the police to capture the criminals involved in the triple murder, but hasn’t made any commitment regarding compensation or employment.
Two assailants stormed into the Ganadoot office in the Ujjayanta palace area around 3 pm on May 19 and strangled and stabbed to death newspaper manager Ranjit Choudhury, proof reader Sujit Bhattacharjee and driver Balaram Ghosh. The horrifying incident created panic and a sense of insecurity amongst city dwellers.
Several sensational killings in Agartala in the past few years such as the murder of Sub Divisional Magistrate Sukhram Debbarma and his body guard, Congress MLA Madhusudan Saha, Youth Congress leader Debal Deb, Shymal Bardhan, Mantu Das, Papai Saha, banker Tilak Majumder and others remain unsolved.
Police officers refused to pass any comment on progress in the inquiry.