02 July 2010
Hemchandra Pandey
Shooting
Hemchandra Pandey, a freelance journalist, was killed alongside top Maoist leader and spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in Andhra Pradesh.
Pandey was working as a journalist for the Hindi newspaper Nayi Duniya in Chhattisgarh. State home minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy said an investigation would establish whether Pandey was a journalist or not. She gave the assurance to Pandey’s widow Bhavitha, who met her at the state secretariat, senior government sources said. In a memorandum submitted to the home minister, a sobbing Bhavitha alleged that the police killed Pandey in a “stage-managed encounter”. “My husband was not a Maoist. He was a freelance journalist in Uttarakhand,” she said and demanded stern action against the erring police officials.
Defending the government, and refuting the fake encounter charge, Reddy said the CPI (Maoist) had said in a press release that Pandey was a Maoist.
