A tragic news has come in from Harpalpur district of Varanasi, where a journalist named Rizawana Tabassum (28) committed suicide on Monday. In her suicide note, she has accused a local youth party leader ‘Shamim Nomani’ associated with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party as responsible for her suicide.
She has worked with liberal-portals such as The Wire, The Print, and BBC Hindi among others. All of them have been uncharacteristically mum on the issue.
Media reports have stated that when Rizwana did not come out of her room on Monday, the family called out to her but hearing no response the police were informed about the incident. The policemen broke open the door and Tabassum’s body was found hanging from the ceiling fan. The suicide note left by Rizwana read ‘Shamim is responsible’.
The police were quick to jump on in the investigation—SSP’s PRO Sanjay Tripathi, told IANS that Shamim Nomani had been formally arrested. He was detained and interrogated on Monday night itself. The autopsy reports confirmed that the death was by hanging.
According to Varanasi Sadar CO, Abhishek Pandey, a case has been registered against Lohta resident Nomani on the charge of abetment to suicide under Section 306 on Tabassum’s father complaint.
Furthermore, it has come to light that Shamim and Rizwana were acquaintances for a long time and consequently no one is able to wrap their heads around the fact as to why Rizwana took the drastic step of taking her life so suddenly.
The father of the journalist was inconsolable and oblivious as to why her daughter committed suicide, “She never told about anything nor did she have any enmity with anyone. She was a good daughter as well as a good journalist.” Tabassum had completed her education in mass communication from the Rajiv Gandhi Campus of Banaras Hindu University in Barkachha and was doing fairly well in her journalistic career.
What has been appalling in the wake of this incident is that none of the portals that Tabassum worked with has bothered to cover her story.
A journalist has seemingly committed suicide with a suspected political foul-play angle and the liberal-media is silent on it, especially when they pride themselves on being champions against any form of injustice.
A journalist who wrote for portals like The Wire and BBC Hindi committed suicide in Varanasi. She has blamed a Samajwadi youth leader in her suicide note. None of the portals she wrote for bothered to cover her suicide & stand up for her. Sad. https://t.co/mUipAqqhaj
— Ajit Datta (@ajitdatta) May 4, 2020
The Print came out with a half-hearted, a wire-syndicate published story whereas the other two portals did not even bother extending any such curtsy.
The Police needs to thoroughly interrogate Nomani for his role in the entire episode so that the loose ends can be tied. And if there is indeed some foul-play involved, which seems highly-plausible given the suicide note explicitly mentions Nomani—the aforementioned news portals should be ashamed for leaving one of their kin’s stranded without even putting up a fight.