Hyderabad: Suresh Chandrakar, the prime accused in the murder of Chhattisgarh journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, has been arrested in Hyderabad.
Suresh Chandrakar, a contractor, has been absconding since the body of the missing journalist was found on January 3 in a septic tank on a property owned by Suresh Chandrakar at Chattanpara Basti in Bijapur town.
Suresh, believed to be the alleged mastermind behind the murder of the 33-year-old journalist, was allegedly hiding at his driver’s residence in Hyderabad.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case arrested him in a late-night operation on Sunday, and he was later taken to Raipur.
Suresh Chandrakar’s wife was also taken into custody in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district and was interrogated.
Three people, including two of Chandrakar’s relatives, were also arrested in the case. His cousin, Ritesh Chandrakar, was arrested at Raipur airport on Saturday, while Mahendra Ramteke, a supervisor, and Dinesh Chandrakar, another relative of the victim, were taken into custody from Bijapur.
Mukesh Chandrakar, an independent journalist who had highlighted alleged irregularities in road construction, went missing on January 1.
He was last seen leaving his home in Bijapur’s Pujari Para on New Year’s Day. When Mukesh did not return, his brother, Yukesh, filed a missing complaint the next day.
Mukesh Chandrakar also ran a YouTube channel, ‘Bastar Junction’, which has 1.59 lakh subscribers.
A preliminary police probe revealed that Ritesh Chandrakar is a kin of Mukesh Chandrakar, and the two used to interact often. On January 1, the two spoke on the phone, and then both went to the compound of Suresh Chandrakar for dinner. An argument broke out after Ritesh accused the deceased of hindering their construction work. According to police, Ritesh and Ramteke killed Mukesh with an iron rod, placed the body in the septic tank and shut it.
(IANS)
