CBI books MLA, two others in Tripura journalist's killing
Agartala, July 2: The CBI has booked three tribal leaders, including an MLA, for the murder of television journalist Santanu Bhowmik in 2017, an official said.
The official said that the three were Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) legislator Dhirendra Debbarma and party leaders Balram Debbarma and Amit Debbarma, apart from 300-500 IPFT members.
The IPFT is a tribal party and an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It has eight MLAs in the 60-member Tripura Assembly and two Cabinet ministers in the BJP-led ministry led by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
Miscreants allegedly owing allegiance to the IPFT had on September 20, 2017 murdered Bhowmik at Mandwai, 25 km from Agartala. Bhowmik, 27, was attacked with sharp weapons while covering a road blockade by the IPFT, which is demanding a separate tribal state.
IPFT Vice President Ananta Debbarma told IANS that the party will comment later.
A newspaper journalist, Sudip Dutta Bhowmik, was also shot dead inside the Tripura State Rifles 2nd Battalion headquarters at Ramchandra Nagar in West Tripura district on November 21.
The then Left Front government had set up two SITs to probe the two killings.
The SIT arrested four TSR personnel -- including TSR 2nd Battalion Commandant Tapan Debbarma, who is a senior Tripura Police Service (TPS) officer and was waiting for IPS nomination regarding Sudip Dutta Bhowmik's killing.
The trial in the Sudip Dutta Bhowmik murder case started last month in the West Tripura District Additional District and Session Judge's court but it was stopped following orders by the Tripura High Court.
The BJP-led government told the High Court in May that it had referred the matter to the CBI.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
