New Delhi: Terming the weekend killings of a journalist and his entire family in Madhya Pradesh as a "terrible incident", the Congress Monday said the guilty should be immediately punished.
"It is most distressing to hear of such a terrible incident where not only a journalist but his entire family has been so brutally killed," Congress leader and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
"I certainly don`t want to make a political comment, but immediately the word that comes to mind is `aaj ka gundaraj` (the rule of thugs)... this is nothing but that," Singhvi said. Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Senior journalist Chandrika Rai, 42, his wife Durga, 39, son Jalaj, 20, and daughter Nisha, 17, were brutally killed at their residence on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday in Umaria, some 500 km from Bhopal. The family was killed with iron rods and their bodies dumped in four rooms of Rai`s house.
"How is it possible that mafia can roam around freely and do this kind of thing to a journalist, of all the people, and to his family? I think it needs to be condemned as the most reprehensible thing," he said.
The Congress leader added the guilty should be punished immediately.
"Unless and until concrete result is immediately shown by the state government in actual punishment...I think it will be completely unpardonable," Singhvi added.
Madhya Pradesh Police have said the murders will be investigated by the Special Task Force (STF). The media fraternity and Rai`s kin have demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the murder. Madhya Pradesh Police chief S.K. Raut, after visiting the spot, said the STF will enquire into the murders.
Rai was associated with several newspapers, including Navbharat and English daily the Hitvaada.
IANS
