Journalist's murder: Press Council of India seeks report from Maharashtra government

Journalist Shashikant Warishe. Pic/Twitter

The Press Council of India on Friday condemned the alleged murder of a journalist in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district and sought a report from the state government.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the matter, Press Council of India Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai directed the Maharashtra government through its chief secretary and Director General of Police to submit a report on the facts of the case at the earliest.

Similar directives were also issued to the district magistrate and the superintendent of police of Ratnagiri, a PCI statement said.

Journalist Shashikant Warishe, 48, was seriously injured on Monday when an SUV allegedly driven by Pandharinath Amberkar hit his two-wheeler near a petrol pump at Rajapur, some 440 km from Mumbai.

Warishe died in hospital the next day. An article written by Warishe against Amberkar had appeared in a local Marathi newspaper on the morning of the incident.

Journalists from across Mumbai on Friday gathered at the statue of Gandhiji in Mantralaya to protest the murder of their Ratnagiri colleague Shashikant Warishe.

Also read: Mumbai journalists demand Shashikant Warishe case be tried in fast-track court, seek MCOCA against accused

It has been alleged Amberkar, now arrested and booked for murder, used to threaten any person who opposed land acquisition for a proposed refinery in the area.

The protesting journalists, who gathered at the state secretariat in the south of the metropolis at noon, sought that the trial be conducted in a fast track court and the accused be given exemplary punishment.

Participants in the protest said those involved in the killing as well as its larger conspiracy should be unravelled through a special investigation team (SIT) and the accused must be slapped with the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Warishe's kin must be given Rs 50 lakh compensation, said Pravin Puro, secretary of Vidhimandal and Mantralaya Pratrakar Sangh, among the journalist associations that took part in Friday's protest.

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