Ten days after he went missing, the body of journalist Rajeev Pratap Singh was recovered from a barrage in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on Sunday.

Superintendent of Police Sarita Dobhal said the postmortem report was awaited to confirm the cause of death. “Prima facie, his car fell into a gorge and into the river, which had swelled during the time of the incident. We had found CCTV footage from a few minutes before the incident, showing him alone in the car,” she told The Indian Express.

Pratap, 36, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, ran a Facebook page called Delhi Uttarakhand Live, which focused on local issues. His family has alleged that he had received multiple threats to take down his recent reports.

On September 18, his car was found in a mangled condition. 

His wife, Muskan, said she last spoke to him around 11 pm, hours before his car was found damaged near a river. “He was telling me that he was feeling anxious after his reports on a hospital and a school (which he had uploaded on his YouTube channel, Delhi Uttarakhand Live). He said that many people were calling him, threatening to kill him if the videos were not taken down. At 11.50, I sent a message, and it went undelivered. He was abducted by someone. I am sure he did not just fall off the road,” she told The Indian Express.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Janak Singh Panwar told the media that Pratap’s body was fished out from the Joshiyara barrage of the Bhagirathi river. 

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief at the death and ordered a thorough and impartial probe. Members of the media fraternity in Uttarakhand also demanded clarity on the circumstances leading to Pratap’s death.

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