India Loses a Fearless Journalist: Sankarshan Thakur Passes Away

Renowned journalist and Editor of The Telegraph, Sankarshan Thakur, passed away on Monday, September 8, 2025, at the age of 63. He had been suffering from a prolonged illness and had recently undergone surgery. His death has left a deep void in Indian journalism, where he was known for his fearless voice and sharp political insights.

Born in 1962 in Patna, Bihar, educated in St. Xavier High School of Patna, Mr. Thakur graduated in Political Science from Hindu College of Delhi University before joining the world of journalism. his journalism career in 1984 with the Sunday magazine of the Ananda Bazar Patrika group. 

Over the years, he worked in several prominent publications, including The Indian Express, played a key role in the launch of Tehelka, and eventually rose to become the Editor of The Telegraph in 2023. 
Before assuming the role of the Editor of The Telegraph, Mr. Thakur had been the newspaper’s National Affairs Editor.

Thakur’s reporting covered some of the most defining events of contemporary India, from the Bhopal gas tragedy and Indira Gandhi’s assassination to the Kargil conflict, Kashmir unrest, and Bihar’s complex political landscape.
His fearless work earned him the “Prem Bhatia Award for Political Journalism” (2001) and the “Appan Menon Fellowship” (2003) for his reporting on Kashmir. As an author, he gave readers powerful political biographies, including Subaltern Saheb: The Making of Laloo Yadav, Single Man: The Life and Times of Nitish Kumar, and The Brothers Bihari.

His ground reporting for The Indian Express on the political violence in Manipur in June 2001, after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had extended ceasefire talks with the Naga group, NSCN-IM, stood out.

Tributes have poured in from across the country. Mallikarjun Kharge praised his “bold and elegant writing,” while Omar Abdullah remembered him as a journalist who “actually listened” to the people. The Press Club of India called him “a fearless voice in times when truth is often under threat.”

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