The family of murdered Bastar journalist Mukesh Chandrakar will be given Rs 10 lakh in aid, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai announced on Tuesday.

The chief minister added that a building for journalists would be built in Chandrakar’s name.

Mukesh Chandrakar, 33, went missing on January 1. His body was found two days later in a septic tank on a property in Bijapur owned by a contractor named Suresh Chandrakar.

Mukesh Chandrakar ran the YouTube channel Bastar Junction, frequently investigating and reporting on corruption, tribal rights and insurgent violence in the conflict-hit region of the state.

A Special Investigation Team looking into the case has alleged that Suresh Chandrakar, a government contractor and a relative of the journalist, planned the killing in retaliation for Mukesh Chandrakar’s reporting.

The journalist had uncovered alleged corruption in a road construction project in Bastar contracted to Suresh Chandrakar.

Earlier this month, several organisations representing journalists expressed shock at Mukesh Chandrakar’s killing and demanded that the Chhattisgarh government ensure a speedy investigation.

The Press Club of India urged the state government to look into the “long-standing demand of local journalists to enact a law to protect journalists”.

Digipub, an association of digital news organisations of which Scroll is a member, noted that threats to journalists’ safety are not just posed by retaliatory actions by the state, but also by criminal elements and local politicians.

“The public and the larger media community rarely consider the well-being of journalists reporting on vital public issues in small cities and remote towns at significant risk to themselves and their families,” Digipub had said. “This needs to change.”

Also read: The murder of a journalist and the forgotten Maoist war in Bastar