New Delhi: Noted journalist Zubair Ahmed was found dead in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, police announced on Friday, July 8.
Ahmed, 55, was the editor of the weekly news magazine The Light of Andamans.
He was found on Thursday at the Crescent Public School at Wimberlygunj in South Andaman. Police said they suspected that Ahmed died by suicide at the school he ran.
The Wire has learned that he was under medication for depression. Police have registered a case and an investigation is underway.
Ahmed’s last rites were performed on Friday, Indian Express has reported.
Ahmed was active on Twitter, where he would often raise human rights and press freedom issues. He was active until July 6 and had tweeted several times in support of his incarcerated namesake, Mohammed Zubair.
In April 2020, Andaman and Nicobar Islands police arrested Ahmed after charging him with multiple offences amidst the first COVID-19 lockdown for a tweet he posted, drawing attention to what he said were bizarre quarantine rules being followed by the local authorities.
On April 26, 2020, the Andaman Chronicle, an established local newspaper, carried a news item with the headline, ‘#AndamanFightsCOVID19: Entire Family Put on Home Quarantine After One Calls Up a Relative in Bambooflat’:
Following up on this, Ahmed had posted a question on April 27 for the Andamans administration, whom he tagged, in which he asked why families who merely spoke to COVID-19 patients on the phone were being forced to quarantine.
The Calcutta high court observed while disposing of the FIR that “allowing the criminal proceeding in terms of the FIR registered against the petitioner would amount to sheer abuse of process of law and misuse of power of the court as the allegation in the FIR appears to be absurd and no prudent person can ever reach a just conclusion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused/petitioner.”
Condoling Ahmed’s death, MP Kuldeep Rai Sharma said he was a fearless journalist who had the courage to call a spade a spade.
(With PTI inputs)