RAIPUR: After a two-day chase, Bastar police arrested Suresh Chandrakar – prime accused in the murder of Bijapur journalist Mukesh Chandrakar – from Hyderabad late Sunday night.
SIT brought Suresh 400km by road to Bijapur on Monday.
This takes the number of arrests in the case to four. Suresh’s brothers Dinesh and Ritesh, along with supervisor Mahendra Ramteke, were arrested on Jan 4, but Suresh, a civil contractor, went on the run.
The 11-member SIT set up to probe the gruesome murder investigated hundreds of phone numbers from tower dumps and scanned CCTV footage of highways to track Suresh. Police are yet to reveal the exact sequence and the total number of accused in the murder.
Suresh, Ritesh and Dinesh are cousins of Mukesh. The preliminary autopsy report presents a horrifying picture of his last hours -15 fractures on Mukesh’s skull, punctured heart and liver, smashed ribs, a broken neck and fractured collar bone. Doctors were shocked to see such a case.
Mukesh, 33, worked for NDTV and also ran a YouTube channel on Bastar. It’s believed one of his recent reports on alleged corruption in road construction led to the murder. Suresh Chandrakar was allegedly the civil contractor for the project.
