Every time Doordarshan (DD) News cameraman Achyutanand Sahu, who died in a Naxal attack Tuesday, went on an outstation assignment he would ask his aunt to take care of his wife. This time too it was no different.
Achyutanand, 34, had called up his aunt, who lives in Delhi, in the morning hours before he died.
"I had spoken to him this morning. I could not speak much since he was busy. He said he was dong fine and asked us to take care of his wife who lives here in Dwarka," Shashi Sahu, a relative of Achyutanand told PTI.
She said Achyutanand usually informed them about his outstation assignments and whenever he would go out, he would tell them to take care of his wife, visit her or take her to their place if he is out on an assignment for a longer duration.
"Achyutanand usually keeps us informed about his whereabouts and I just returned after visiting my hometown. This is quite shocking since I had spoken to him this morning also," Shashi said.
He got married in February, 2016, she said.
Achutyanand's elder brother Prabhat Sahu said, "The news of his death came as a shock. I had spoken to him just two days back and it was a usual conversation about family and his work."
Abhishek Sahu, a family friend of Achyutanand who is a medical student in Ukraine, said just six hours before his death he had updated his Facebook status and shared pictures with the residents in Dantewada.
"When I logged into Facebook a few hours ago, I was shocked to see a post shared by one of the journalists about the tragic death of my uncle. I was completely taken aback. When I heard about the death of a DD cameraperson, it struck me that my uncle was also in Dantewada. Later, we got a confirmation and the news was being shared on a family Whatsapp group.
"The entire village is proud of him. Not many people from our village were educated. My uncle has risen above all and reached this level. He used to always update us about his assignments," he said.
Recalling his last meeting with Achyutanand, he said when I visited Delhi in August, I stayed with him for two days. He used to guide me always and had advised me to focus on my studies and work hard towards my goal.
Achyutanand belonged to Loisingha village in Orissa's Bolangir district. His Facebook profile states he was working with Doordarshan since 2012 and is an alumnus of the Biju Pattnaik Film and Television Institute of Odisha.
Two policemen and Sahu were killed and two others were injured in the Maoist attack in poll-bound Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district Tuesday.
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