Scribe's family refuse to perform final rites
Strap: The family demands arrest of six accused in the murder, two have been nabbed
PTI
BALAGHAT
The family members of local journalist Sandeep Kothari, who was burnt to death allegedly by three persons suspected to be closely linked to sand mafia, today refused to perform his last rites while demanding that six more persons behind the murder be arrested.
The body of the 40-year-old journalist was brought to Katangi town in Balaghat, from Wardha in Maharashtra at around 5 AM today.
The body was handed over to Kothari's family members who left from Wardha at around midnight last night, Wardha's Sindhi Police Station Inspector V V Mohurle told PTI.
The post-mortem was conducted at General Hospital in Wardha, he said, adding that a police team which was already camping in city for search and investigation also accompanied the body to his native place in Balaghat.
In Katangi, the deceased's wailing family members demanded that the accused, “who are high and mighty,” should be arrested.
The journalist's distraught father Prakash Chand Kothari and mother Kanchan Devi said they will perform their son's last rites only when the police gives them an assurance about arresting six more persons allegedly behind the killing.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in MP Assembly Satyadev Katare in a press release said that Congress has constituted a three-member committee of MLAs to probe into the journalist's death.
The committee is headed by convenor Madhu Bhagat and has Hina Kanvre and Sanjay Uikey, all MLAs from Balaghat district, as its members.
Kothari was burnt to death allegedly by three persons, suspected to be closely linked to sand mafia, who set him ablaze apparently over his refusal to withdraw a court case, the police had said.
The burnt body of Sandeep, who was abducted from Katangi tehsil three days back, was found lying near railway tracks at Sindhi town in Wardha district on Saturday night, they said.
Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Soni had earlier said that Kothari was out on bail for last two months in a rape case.
Two accused, Vishal Tandi and Brajesh Daharwal, both hailing from Katangi, have been arrested, Soni said, adding that they have announced a reward of Rs 30,000 on the other accused Rakesh Nasvani, who is absconding.
Earlier, police had said that all the three accused were arrested, but late last night they clarified in a release that only two were arrested, while Nasvani was absconding.
Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) J S Markam had earlier said that the police suspected the trio were engaged in illegal mining and also running chit fund companies. He said they had allegedly kidnapped Kothari and set him ablaze.
They were pressurising Kothari, who was working as a tehsil correspondent for some Jabalpur-based Hindi dailies, to withdraw a case of illegal mining he had filed against some persons in a local court, the police said. The police suspect Kothari was kidnapped and murdered because he refused to withdraw the matter.
Inspector Mohurle said as the accused had earlier worked at an industrial estate in Butibori near Nagpur city and were familiar with its topography, they selected the spot in Sindhi to dump the journalist's burnt body.
