Fountain Ink deeply mourns the passing of its contributing writer Arpit Parashar (33), on December 22, 2017 in Noida. In a tragic accident Arpit fell to his death from the terrace of his apartment complex.

Arpit, an alumnus of the Chennai-based Asian College of Journalism, had been a journalist for 10 years. He started his career as a trainee reporter with The Indian Express in Delhi in 2007, later worked with the news magazine Tehelka, and The New Indian Express in Bengaluru. Since July 2012, he had been a freelance journalist save for a short stint at the investigative web portal “Gulail”. During this period he reported regularly for Fountain Ink, finding stories of injustice and government impunity from the farthest corners of the Hindi heartland.

At the Express, Arpit was as prolific as he was brilliant, covering crime in the NCR, as also the Jat agitation in Rajasthan. He reported on the Aarushi and Hemraj murder case, breaking many stories during the various twists and turns of the investigation.

For Fountain Ink, Arpit’s work was stellar, a model of what ground reporting should be. His work took him on a gun smuggler’s boat on the Ganga, a midnight car ride with a cricket bookie in the Thar, a journey across Nepal, and on the mythical trail of the Saraswati river. He went wherever the story took him, and he never failed to provide the granular detail that is the heart of good reporting.

A two-time recipient of the Red Ink Award for Excellence in Journalism, Arpit was also an editorial consultant for the four-part HBO documentary “The Talwars: Behind Closed Doors” on the Aarushi-Hemraj murders. His book on the Nithari killings was to be published in 2018. 

A chronicler of people, places and events that the mainstream media doesn’t visit, Arpit’s work stands out for its portraits of the hidden India right under our noses.

Arpit's works can be accessed here. 

Correction, December 25, 2017: The name of the HBO documentary has been corrected.