Missing journalist’s body found in septic tank after he exposed alleged corruption
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Mukesh Chandrakar’s reporting uncovered alleged irregularities in a road construction project. The body of a missing investigative journalist has been found on a property linked to a man he had recently exposed for alleged corruption in India, police say.
Mukesh Chandrakar, 28, a freelance journalist who ran a YouTube channel called Bastar Junction in the central Chhattisgarh state, had been missing since New Year’s Day. His reporting had uncovered alleged irregularities in a £11.8m road construction project in the Bastar region, a hotbed of Maoist insurgency, prompting a government investigation.
Police found the journalist’s last known meeting was with Ritesh Chandrakar, the brother of contractor Suresh Chandrakar, at one of the latter’s properties in Bijapur district. The reporter’s brother, Yukesh Chandrakar, had filed a missing persons report after he could not reach him on the phone.
“A preliminary investigation revealed that Mukesh had been missing since 1 January. CCTV footage and phone tracking led us to the location, where we found his body inside a newly floored septic tank,” a police officer told India Today. Police said his injuries were consistent with a blunt-force assault.
The body was found on 3 January. Police arrested the contractor and booked him as the main accused in the murder of the journalist. “The main accused of Mukesh Chandrakar’s murder, the local contractor Suresh Chandrakar, was arrested by SIT from Hyderabad in the wee hours of Monday. Interrogation of the accused is going on,” the Bijapur police said in a statement on Monday.
