Lynched Tripura Journalist Santanu Bhowmik’s Last Words To His Channel: ‘Reaching Office Soon’

“On Wednesday morning, Santanu came to know that the IPFT, which has been demanding a separate tribal state called Tipraland, was holding an agitation in Mandai. Soon, he along with a freelance videojournalist rushed to the spot from his residence in Jirania, which is around 7.5 km from Mandai,” Dhar told Outlook from Agartala.

Bhowmik then sent the channel a few exclusive footage of the blockade.

“It was around 1.15 pm, Santanu called up one of our colleagues, saying he was reaching the office soon. This was the last time he spoke to us,” said Dhar, who is also the Tripura bureau chief of Kolkata-based Bengali newspaper Aaj Kal.

According to Dhar, from the agitation site Bhowmik returned to his home for lunch. Around 3 pm, as he was leaving for the office, the journalist received information that members of the IPFT were setting some vehicles ablaze.  

“Without informing us, he went back to that place, hoping for more exclusive footage. While making some video clips on his mobile phone, he came close to the agitators. That is when he was ‘gheraoed’ by the protestors despite a thick police presence. They first hit Santanu on his leg with a heavy object. When he fell down, they dragged him inside a nearby stadium, where they lynched him,” said the editor, adding that Santanu’s passion for work proved “too costly”.

Dhar added that the attackers even took away his mobile phone, which could have been a vital evidence in the murder case.

Din Raat was launched in April this year. "I still remember, Santanu had come for a job interview. He was very polite, but looked really impressive. He had previously worked with two other local channels," he said.

‘He exposed IPFT’

Santanu was among the first journalists in the state who had reported that the IPFT was politically backed. “He loved investigative stories”, recalls Dhar.

 “Ever since he had joined the Din Raat -- a cable channel -- in April, he had been extensively covering the IPFT,” he added.

“He was fearless. Perhaps, he was the only journalist who had comprehensively covered the earlier blockade called by the IPFT on July 10 that had led to a serious shortage of essential items, including food grain. He had become a popular reporter,” said Chakraborty, who was Santanu’s senior colleague when the latter started his journalism career with ‘Khabar 365’, a local Bengali news channel, in 2013.  

Opened a nursery school for poor children

“Santanu would tell me, ‘I want to work for the poor’. He even opened a nursery school for poor children near his house and used to teach there. It shows his humanity… I can’t believe he is no more with us,” said Dhar as his voice chokes.