CPJ mourns deaths of four journalists in plane crash


New York, October 3, 2001
—CPJ mourns the tragic deaths of our colleagues Anju Sharma of the Hindustan Times; Sanjiv Sinha of the Indian Express; Ranjan Jha of the television news channel Aaj Tak; and Gopal Bisht, cameraman for Aaj Tak.

All four journalists were killed on September 30 when their chartered plane crashed during a flight between New Delhi and Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh State. Four other passengers, including the opposition Congress Party’s deputy leader, Madhav Rao Scindia, were also killed.

A fire in the engine caused the crash, according to Indian press reports. The passengers were traveling to Kanpur for a Congress Party rally.