Ace journalist Sukharanjan Sengupta passes away

Kolkata: After having spent nearly six decades in journalism, ace reporter Sukharanjan Sengupta breathed his last on Saturday evening in the city. He was suffering from age-related ailments.

Sengupta is survived by wife, a son, and a daughter. The family said his last rites will be performed on December 10.

Sengupta was born in Khulna in undivided India and later moved to Bengal after the Partition. He joined journalism in his early youth and has over the decades worked for Bengali newspapers like Lok Sevak, Jana Sevak, Jugantar and Anandabazar Patrika. He also briefly contributed in Dainik Statesman.

Sengupta extensively covered the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1970-71. He came to the limelight after managing to sneak into Marichjhapi, a reserved island in the Sundarbans, on the eve of a state crackdown on migrant settlers in 1979 and filing reports about the state-sponsored cruelty.

One of the last of dhoti-clad political reporters in Kolkata, he was on first-name terms with several senior politicians and senior bureaucrats of the country. Despite age, Sengupta never gave up on his journalism and continued to freelance for several Bengali newspapers even years after his official retirement.

He has authored several books, mostly in Bengali.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered her condolences to the bereaved family and termed Sengupta's demise as an "irreparable loss to journalism." Kolkata Press Club too has offered condolences on his demise.