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Northeast

Tripura DGP Death Probe Widens as Forensics Ordered, Opposition Presses for Judicial Inquiry

By Sentinel NE Desk · July 23, 2026 · 3 min read
Photo: Kingshuk Mondal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Ujjayanta Palace, the former royal palace and state museum in Agartala, Tripura
Ujjayanta Palace, Agartala. Photo: Kingshuk Mondal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

Tripura Police have begun a forensic examination of the mobile phone, laptop and personal computer belonging to Director General of Police Anurag Dhankar, widening the investigation into the death of the state’s top police officer even as the political opposition intensifies its demand for an independent judicial inquiry, officials told The Assam Tribune.

Dhankar, a 1994-batch IPS officer who took charge as Tripura’s DGP in May 2025, was found hanging in the washroom attached to his chamber at the State Police Headquarters in Agartala on Monday, July 20. He was rushed to Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, arriving with no pulse or blood pressure, according to Daily Pioneer and Tripura Chronicle. Senior physician Dr Pradeep Bhaumik said an emergency team performed CPR for close to 40 to 48 minutes before Dhankar was declared dead at 12:48 pm. Chief Minister Manik Saha, who visited the police headquarters with senior officials after learning of the death, said on social media he was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the loss.

Investigating officer Subhrajit Deb told The Assam Tribune that a case of unnatural death has been registered and that the seized devices will be sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Narsingarh, West Tripura, with results expected to take at least one and a half months. According to a complaint filed by Assistant Inspector General of Police Prabir Majumder, Dhankar had instructed staff not to admit visitors to his chamber until 11 am that morning; when he failed to emerge, staff broke open the locked washroom door and found him hanging from the ventilator.

Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury of the CPI(M) has repeated his call for a judicial probe headed by a sitting Tripura High Court judge, arguing the death “cannot be viewed in isolation” and should be examined against what he described as an erosion of democratic and constitutional rights in the state over the past eight years, India Today NE reported. Chaudhury said he had spoken with Dhankar on several occasions in recent months and that the DGP had appeared “deeply distressed and uncomfortable,” though he offered no further specifics, and said he had no confidence in a CBI inquiry, alleging the agency has become a political tool of the ruling party. Senior Tripura High Court advocate Somik Deb separately urged the court to take suo motu cognisance of the case, saying every aspect of it “must be thoroughly investigated.”

The state government has not publicly responded to the opposition’s allegations. Officials have said only that the probe will proceed in accordance with the law, pending the post-mortem and forensic findings.

Dhankar, who hailed from Baraut in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, spent nearly 16 years of his three-decade career in Tripura, holding posts including Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) and Director General of Police (Intelligence). On central deputation, he served with the Central Bureau of Investigation, rising to Additional Director and leading the probe into the Punjab National Bank fraud case involving diamond merchant Nirav Modi, one of India’s largest financial crime investigations, and he also served with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo from 2003 to 2004, according to Daily Pioneer. His body was flown to Delhi on Tuesday, and his last rites were held Wednesday in his native village.

Coverage of the episode has differed somewhat in emphasis: Tripura-based outlets and the wire-fed Assam Tribune have concentrated on the procedural details of the investigation and the state administration’s response, while India Today NE has given more prominent space to the opposition’s political framing of the death, including a separate call from a Congress MLA for a High Court-monitored probe. Sentinel NE Desk cross-checked the sequence of events, hospital account and investigation status across multiple outlets before publication.

Compiled from reporting by The Assam Tribune, Daily Pioneer, Tripura Chronicle, and India Today NE. Sentinel NE Desk cross-checked these accounts before publication. Local Tripura outlets and the wire-fed Assam Tribune emphasised the procedural and administrative details of the probe, while India Today NE gave greater prominence to the political opposition’s framing of the death.

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