GUWAHATI, JANUARY 10: The ranger of the Nambor reserved forest, K Z Zaman Jinnah, was arrested for allegedly murdering journalist Prahlad Goala of Assamese daily Asomiya Khabar in Golaghat on Friday last. Goala had reported on illegal felling of trees in the forest range.
Goala, the Golaghat district correspondent of the daily, was reportedly killed by unidentified assailants who waylaid him at Thuramukh, about 10 kms from Golaghat town, when he was returning home from work.
Sources said that Goala, travelling on a motorbike, must have been first knocked down by a vehicle after which he was attacked with steel rods, wooden sticks and axe, as injuries on his head, legs and body showed that he was not killed in head-on collision.
Another scribe, working with daily Aji, informed the police when he spotted Goala’s body on the road.
With the help of other journalists of Asomiya Khabar, the police reached the spot and arrested two persons who were trying to run away from a forest camp close to the place of the incident after finding blood stains on their clothes.
Meanwhile, the police arrested Jinnah on the basis of a complaint filed by Goala’s wife, who alleged that her husband received threat calls for reporting on corrupt practices prevalent in the Nambor forest range.
Atanu Bhuyan, editor of Asomiya Khabar, also confirmed that Goala was receiving threat calls from the forest ranger for the past several weeks for reporting on illegal felling of trees by a criminal gang which was allegedly patronised by Jinnah.
Bhuyan also pointed out that six days before Goala was killed, the ranger had threatened his father and asked him to ‘‘control’’ his son.
