Noone killed Nirupama
Journalist Nirupama forced to commit suicide?
RANCHI | Thursday, March 3, 2011

VIJAY DEO JHA | RANCHI

After a botched autopsy and a thoroughly unprofessional investigation, the Koderma police stumbled finally to report that Delhi-based journalist Nirupama Pathak was not murdered but had committed suicide.

The police on Wednesday appealed to the Koderma CGM court to issue arrest warrant against Nirupama's boyfriend Priyabhansu Ranjan, her father Dharmendra Pathak, mother Sudha Pathak and two brothers Salil Pathak and Samrendra Pathak for instigating her to commit suicide.

Addressing a Press conference, the Koderma SP Kranti Kumar informed the media and said that prayer for warrants has been made against these persons. Nevertheless, Sudha was the lone accused in this case coming out of jail after judicial custody.

One of the sensational cases of last year, 22-year-old Nirupama, working with Business Standard was found dead under suspicious circumstance at her native house in Jhumri Tallayia in April last.

Nirupama was three months pregnant with Ranjan's child, her classmate at IIMC, New Delhi.

The doctors conducting post mortem on her body concluded it was a case of smothering. But they never preserved the viscera and foetus that could prove to be vital during the investigations. Questions were raised over the authenticity of the report after doctors admitted that they were not trained to conduct post mortem. National media termed it to be a case of honour killing. Ranjan and media even piloted a sustained campaign in New Delhi with candle march to punish the culprits. But a report by AIIMS experts silenced all terming it as a case of suicide.

Nirupama wanted to marry Ranjan much against the wishes of her family. And the evidences suggest that Nirupama during her stay at her home had sent many SMSs to Ranjan that her family was pressurising her to abandon her marriage plan. Ranjan did not respond to any.

Soon after her death, Ranjan took away her laptop from her New Delhi residence, as he used to keep the duplicate key to her flat, and erased the data. It led the police to suspect Ranjan, a native of Darbhanga district in Bihar. People close to him said that Ranjan never informed his family about his intimate relations with the deceased journalist.