India press watchdog demands journalist murder probe

NEW DELHI: India´s media watchdog has demanded a thorough investigation after a journalist´s battered body was found stuffed in a septic tank covered with concrete.

Freelance journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, 28, had reported widely on corruption and a decades-old Maoist insurgency in India´s central Chhattisgarh state, and ran a popular YouTube channel “Bastar Junction”.

The Press Council of India expressed “concern” over the suspected murder of Chandrakar, calling for a report on the “facts of the case” in a statement late on Saturday.