23 March 1999

Alert

Indian journalist murdered


Incident details

Anil Rattan

journalist(s)

killed


(CPJ/IFEX) - CPJ is deeply disturbed by the murder of Anil Rattan, a
free-lance journalist and former correspondent for the Hong Kong-based
magazine "AsiaWeek". Rattan's killing marks the third murder of a
journalist
in the Indian capital in less than two months.




Police say that Rattan's body was discovered in the bathroom of his
Delhi
apartment on 20 March 1999 "in a highly decomposed condition," and
estimate
that he was killed around 18 March. According to police reports, Rattan
had
been stabbed several times and strangled either with a length of wire
found
lying near the body or with his undershirt.

Rattan's murder bears striking similarities to the 23 January killing of
Shivani Bhatnagar, an investigative reporter for the English-language
daily
newspaper "The Indian Express" who was stabbed repeatedly and strangled
with
a piece of wire in her East Delhi apartment (see IFEX alerts of 10
February
and 28 January 1999). On 13 March, police found the body of Irfan
Hussain, a
sometimes controversial political cartoonist for the English-language
news
magazine "Outlook", off a highway in New Delhi. His body showed signs of
extreme torture.

Recommended Action


Send appeals to the Prime Minister:
  • expressing concern that criminal investigations in India are too
    rarely
    completed, and that killers are therefore seldom brought to justice
  • recalling that journalists across India have expressed the fear that
    they
    are increasingly
    vulnerable to attack when criminals know they can act with impunity
  • urging his administration to order the Central Bureau of
    Investigation
    (CBI), the country's federal intelligence agency, to take on the cases
    of
    Rattan, Bhatnagar, and Hussain
  • asking that a formal inquiry into the police's handling of these
    cases be
    launched, which would help reassure the Indian press of his government's
    commitment to improving the quality of criminal investigations and
    ensuring
    that violent crime against journalists will not be tolerated




    Appeals To



    His Excellency Atal Behari Vajpayee
    Prime Minister of India
    Office of the Prime Minister
    South Block
    New Delhi 110 011, India
    Fax: +91 11 301 6857







    Please copy appeals to the source if possible.





    Source:

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