Jharkhand journalist, Amit Topno, killed because he was going to unravel truth behind Kochang gangrape, allege colleagues

Manmohan Singh

Ranchi: In the wee hours of December 9, 2018, Amit Topno, 35, a community reporter working for Video Volunteers since 2012 from Khunti district who was also associated with a few Jharkhand-based news websites during heydays of Pathalgadi movement in the tribal district, was shot dead at point-blank range and his body was found in Doranda area of Ranchi. Topno also used to drive a cab to make a living.

Locals who found the body informed the police and Topno’s body was shifted to the mortuary. As per preliminary investigation, there were no signs of scuffle, except for two neat bullet wounds, one on the shoulder and another on his head. Topno’s cab and mobile phone were not recovered from the crime scene.

“Prima facie, it appeared to be a premeditated murder by someone known to Amit Topno because there wasn’t any sign of resistance and assailants had ensured that he is dead by shooting through Topno’s head,” says Doranda police station officer-in-charge, Ramesh Kumar Singh.

Cops clueless

Even a fortnight since the murder, Ranchi police is just as clueless as it was on day one. “We were initially trying to locate his phone number which is missing and scanning his call details to ascertain with whom he was in touch on the fateful evening. However, since that line of investigation has not taken us anywhere, we are reviewing all the available information and searching for more clues,” says superintendent of police, Ranchi city,  Aman Kumar.

Son of an ex-armyman and second among four siblings, Topno had also served as gram pradhan of his village Nichitpur in Torpa block of Khunti district, apart from working for social and economic upliftment of people from his community for about a decade. Khunti is one of the 15 scheduled areas under Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, under which traditional gram sabhas have been given power for self governance, as further enshrined in the PESA Act 1995. However, its implementation has been patchy at best, which was one of the root causes of Pathalgadi agitation.

“Topno was one of our community reporters working from Khunti since past eight years. Since he was well read, widely travelled and active member of the community, Topno covered controversial issues like human trafficking, illegal mining, tribal rights, right to education and due to his efforts, area around his village saw some development too. He was a vocal critic of corruption and denial of constitutionally guaranteed rights to gram sabhas,” says Deepak Bara, Jharkhand state coordinator for Video Volunteers, an NGO that promotes community media to enable citizen participation across marginalised communities.

Helped scribes report on Pathalgadi

During the Pathalgadi movement, Topno helped many local and outstation journalists understand the root cause of problems which initiated the conflict, and in some cases organised interviews with the leaders of the Pathalgadi movement. A rare interview of Yusuf Purti, who was alleged by the authorities to be the kingpin of the Pathalgadi movement and the Kochang gangrape of five women activists, was carried by Newscode - a Jharkhand based news portal - with Topno’s help.

“Topno was instrumental in getting news from tribal hinterlands which had become inaccessible to reporters due to untrusting villagers and police action. We successfully managed to break many developments during heydays of the (Pathalgadi) movement due to exclusive inputs provided by Topno. We also made him an offer to join our news portal, which he did and worked with us for some seven months from May 2018 till November 2018, when website was shut down due to fund crunch,” says Om Prakash, ex-Jharkhand bureau chief, Newscode.

Coming from an impoverished background with a widowed elder sister and aging parents who were surviving on paltry pension of his father, Topno took to work quite early in life. Apart from working as community reporter, he also used to double up as a cab driver when in Ranchi.

Few journalists who came in contact with him during height of Pathalgadi movement in Khunti feel that Topno, too, was somehow involved in the movement.

“I first met Amit at Governor house during a delegation level meeting called by Governor Draupadi Murmu with gram pradhans of affected Khunti villages to defuse the situation. Amit came across as a well-read person with strong views about non-implementation of PESA Act in tribal areas of Jharkhand. He was always up to date with information and shared a lot many inputs to an extent that sometimes I felt he was also involved. He also took many journalists to hubs of Pathalgadi agitation but I refrained from going there,” says a Ranchi-based correspondent of a national daily seeking anonymity.

Saw gangrape as ‘conspiracy’

According to colleagues who were close to Topno, he was working on unravelling the details of Kochang gangrape incident of June 2018, which led to registration of police cases against Yusuf Purti and around 20 others leading the Pathalgadi movement. The incident allegedly helped the administration in diverting attention from Pathalgadi to the gangrape, resulting in violent action by the Jharkhand police against villagers supporting Pathalgadi.

“Amit believed that Kochang gangrape incident was a conspiracy devised by government to divert attention from Pathalgadi. We had been warning him since past few months to stay alert. He was also working with tribal community in their opposition against the permanent police pickets established at their schools and community centers after Pathalgadi,” says Bara of Video Volunteers, who is also a documentary filmmaker.

Another journalist friend of Topno feared sharing information over the phone and instead invited this correspondent to meet in person.

“All I can say is Topno was working on unravelling the unholy nexus between the opposition and the government over suppressing the truth of Kochang gangrape incident. All the parties are in collusion over suppressing the tribal voice in Khunti because of corporate interests in prospective mines in Khunti, and the fact that Khunti has highest proportion of gair majarua (GM) land, compared to any district of Jharkhand,” says the scribe who wished to be anonymous, adding that he believes his phone is under surveillance.

Picture credit: Amit Topno's Facebook