(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 […]
(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:
rarely
completed, and that killers are therefore seldom brought to justice
they
are increasingly
vulnerable to attack when criminals know they can act with impunity
Investigation
(CBI), the country’s federal intelligence agency, to take on the cases
of
Rattan, Bhatnagar, and Hussain
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.
