The Chhattisgarh Police have reportedly filed 1,200-page-plus chargesheet before a Bijapur district court in the Mukesh Chandrakar murder case.

According to police, the journalist was killed for reporting irregularities in road construction work in Bijapur. The murder was allegedly planned by the four arrested accused – a contractor, his two brothers and a supervisor.

The contractor, Suresh Chandrakar, is the prime accused in the case. There are reportedly 72 witnesses and evidence includes CCTV footage and call data record analysis.

According to the police, the accused – contractor Suresh Chandrakar, his brothers Ritesh Chandrakar and Dinesh Chandrakar, and supervisor Mahendra Ramteke – dumped the journalist’s body into a septic tank and covered it in an attempt to mislead the police.

“The news related [to] irregularities in the Nelasnar-Mirthur-Gangaloor road construction work done by Suresh and his associates became the main reason for the murder. To mislead the police, the accused had dumped the body into a septic tank and covered it with a fresh concrete slab,” the police said in a statement, according to Hindustan Times.

Suresh, who held a grudge against Mukesh for exposing corruption in his construction contracts, orchestrated the journalist’s murder, police said.

Mukesh Chandrakar ran a YouTube channel called Bastar Junction and had worked on reports for several media houses. He was found dead on January 3, two days after he was reported missing by his brother. According to a post mortem report, Chandrakar was attacked with a heavy object and suffered severe injuries to his head, chest, back, and stomach. His body was identified through a tattoo on his hand.

Read this first person account to understand how Chandrakar’s life symbolised the Bastar media story.

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