Assam government has decided to hand over the probe into the murder of Anil Majumdar, executive editor of an Assamese daily, to the Criminal Investigation Department of the state police.

After reviewing the security scenario in the state in a high-level meeting on Thursday, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi directed the state Director General of Police G M Srivastava to hand over the case to the CID and take necessary steps to nab the culprit immediately.

Assam police, meanwhile, released the sketch of the suspected assassin based on the account of the slain journalist's driver.

The driver, Ramen Nath, was the only witness to the gruesome murder.

A senior city police official informed that the killer appeared to be an expert in handling weapons given the way he fired upon the journalist from a very close range. Meanwhile, protests rage across the state over the killing.

The journalists' fraternity has demanded immediate arrest of the culprit. Majumdar happened to be 22nd journalists to be killed in Assam since late 1980s.

Meanwhile, fearing that militants might try to trigger violence in the run up to elections in the state, Assam government has decided to augment deployment of forces in all the six police ranges in the state.