72 witnesses have been named on the list of witnesses, according to police. Freelance reporter Mukesh Chandrakar was murdered for reporting a scandal in the road construction project in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district and it was plotted by a contractor with his two brothers and a site supervisor, according to a charge sheet filed on Tuesday.
To deceive the police, the accused threw the body of the journalist into a septic tank and poured a new concrete slab over it. The 1,200-page charge sheet was presented in a court in Bijapur district. It included contractor Suresh Chandrakar, (his brothers) Ritesh Chandrakar and Dinesh Chandrakar, and Mahendra Ramteke, Bijapur Additional Superintendent of Police Mayank Gurjar said.
Suresh Chandrakar was the prime accused who hatched the conspiracy to kill the journalist after he had reported malpractices in the construction of the Nelasnar-Mirthur-Gangaloor road carried out by Suresh and his men, police added.
The four suspects were arrested under sections 103 (murder), 238 (giving false information to screen offender or causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 61 (criminal conspiracy), 239 (omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform with intent to shield offender), and 249 (harbouring offender) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), stated Gurjar, the head of Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Gurjar stated that the physical and digital evidence was thoroughly scrutinized during the investigation and documented in the case diary. We will attempt to see that all four accused receive the maximum punishment from the court,” he further added.
Mukesh Chandrakar, 33, had disappeared on January 1 this year. Two days later, his body was discovered dumped in a septic tank on a farm owned by Suresh Chadnrakar in Bijapur town. The probe culminated in Suresh being arrested along with his brothers, Ritesh and Dinesh, and supervisor Mahendra Ramteke within 72 hours (following the recovery of the body).
The scribe was also a freelancer at Bastar Junction’. Providing minute details of the charge sheet, police in an official statement maintained that the murderer contractor Suresh Chandrakar, along with his two brothers, and the supervisor, had conspired to kill the scribe.
“The news involving irregularities in the road construction work on the Nelasnar-Mirthur-Gangaloor road undertaken by Suresh and his friends turned out to be the prime motive behind the murder. To deceive the police, the accused had thrown the body into a septic tank and put a fresh concrete slab on it,” police said. The police acted with alacrity and arrested all the four suspects within 72 hours. Forensic officers finalised the inquiry based on technical and scientific data, said the police.
