Mukesh Chandrakar: Journalist’s murder highlights risks of reporting in small-town India

A journalist who Chandrakar helped cover a particularly sensitive story told the BBC about how he had helped him cross Maoists camps and police check-posts to access regions deep inside forests.

“It would have been impossible to access the terrain without him,” the person, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

He described Chandrakar as a person who was passionate about new experiences, loved the chase and felt proud when his actions led to change.

“He was also a deeply aspirational person. He didn’t want to be defined by his difficult life; he wanted to rise above that,” he said.

It’s perhaps this trait of Chandrakar’s that has led to some speculation about the actual cause of his death. Police say that two of the people arrested for his murder are related to him, one of whom is a contractor.

There are whispers about Chandrakar’s lifestyle, which some colleagues found puzzling given the poor salaries of local journalists. In a tribute, his close friend and fellow journalist, Dipankar Ghose, acknowledged the complexities of working in a profession where survival often meant navigating difficult choices.

“For me, Mukesh was the personification of bravery. I’m not going to pretend that in a universe where media organisations he [Chandrakar] worked for didn’t even pay for his petrol let alone a stable salary, sustenance wasn’t a problem, and therefore some wires weren’t crossed. But Mukesh loved journalism with a passion,” he wrote as part of a lengthy post, external praising Chandrakar on X.