Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Friday said the Central Bureau of Investigation will take over the inquiry into the killings of two journalists last year, PTI reported.

In September, journalist Shantanu Bhowmik was killed in Mandai block in the state during clashes between members of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura and Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad, the tribal wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In November, another journalist, Sudip Datta Bhaumik, was allegedly shot dead by the bodyguard of a Tripura State Rifles officer in RK Nagar near Agartala.

Tripura Police’s Special Investigating Team has filed a chargesheet in the Sudip Datta Bhowmik case, however, it has not filed a chargesheet in the Santanu Bhowmik case yet. The journalists’ organisation in Tripura and the family members of the victims had been demanding a CBI investigation.

“Today, we feel relieved as the CBI is going to investigate both the cases,” Deb told reporters. “With this, the BJP-IPFT government has fulfilled yet another promise made in the party’s vision document.”

The chief minister said the state cabinet had sent separate proposals to the Centre to probe the two cases. The government has taken positive steps to ensure that the media works with full freedom in the state, he added.