Silent Protest March at Home Ministry

Press Release/May 15, 2010

To demand a CBI investigation into the Nirupama Pathak murder case, a silent protest march was carried out from Press Club to the Home Ministry, on a joint call from the Press Club of India, The Indian Women Press Corp, Justice for Nirupama Campaign and the IIMC Alumni Association.

The demonstration, carried out to demand justice for journalist Nirupama Pathak, was led by Press Club of India General Secretary Pushpendra Kulshrestha, DUJ President S K Pandey, Senior Journalists Ram Bahadur Rai, Anand Swaroop Verma, Prof Subhash Dhulia, Prof Anand Pradhan, Dilip Mandal, Anil Chamadia and Rajesh Verma; Educationists Prof Anand Kumar, Proj Ajit Jha; social activists working for women’s rights Ranjana Kumari, Sudha Sundarraman, Jagmati Sangwan; and Sucheta, Roshan Kishor and Vijay Pratap from students’ organisations. Besides, journalists, students, teachers, writers and representatives from women and social organizations also turned out in huge numbers.

Two days ago, Jharkhand DGP Neyaz Ahmed had said that the investigation so far indicated that Nirupama had been murdered. Justice for Nirupama Campaign had been pointing out since Day 1 that Nirupama had been murdered because she wanted to get married out of her caste. It is for everyone to see that some officials involved in the probe and the Pathak family have tried to twist the issue and turn the course of investigation in a different direction.

Journalists who participated in the silent march demanded that the case be transferred immediately to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) because the Koderma Police had been handling the case in a very lax, callous and careless way. They added, it also appeared that the officials had been working under pressure from the Pathak family and some political parties. The journalists also demanded that the evidences related to the case be duly preserved because the Pathak family had been hiding and destroying key evidences. It was also sought that the case be tried in a fast-track court so that a strong case could be made against ‘honour killings’ and such a heinous crime could be stopped at once.