Prominent television journalist and editor Barkha Dutt has announced she will be leaving NDTV. In a statement, the television news channel said, “Barkha has requested that she would like to explore some new opportunities, pursue other interests and work on her own ventures.” Dutt had joined them “straight out of college” in 1995, it said.

Dutt has said she will be leaving the organisation to “build her own independent projects”. The Padma Shri-winner had stepped down as Group Editor at the channel in February 2015 and has been a Consulting Editor since then.

Barkha Dutt had become a leading name in English television journalism over the past two decades. She had initially become well-known for her reporting at Kargil during the war in 1999, and had gone on to host NDTV’s night news bulletins. Later, Dutt became the face of the channel’s programme We The People. She had also been at the centre of some controversies – Dutt had been mentioned in the Nira Radia tapes in 2008-2009 for allegedly brokering with politicians on behalf of a corporate lobbyist.