Contract killers may have shot dead journalist: Bihar DGP

Bihar Director General of Police P K Thakur on Monday said that the ongoing investigation into the killing of a senior journalist in Siwan district had suggested that a 'supari' (contract) had been given to kill him.

Rajdeo Ranjan, 46, the Siwan bureau chief of the Hindi newspaper Hindustan, was shot dead on Friday night in a market near the Station Road in Siwan.

Thakur informed media persons that the shooters involved will be arrested soon

The top police official said that around 70 per cent of CCTV footage near the incident site was recovered by the police with the help of experts.

"It will help police to nab the shooters,” he said.

State police has detained over a dozen suspected people in connection with Rajdeo’s killing and claimed to have made a major breakthrough in solving the case.

So far, two people have been arrested in the case including Upender Singh, the sharp shooter of jailed former Siwan MP Mohammed Shahabuddin, and have been remanded to a 14-day judicial custody on Sunday under the new Excise Act.

The Bihar DGP said, “We are working to tie in evidence by way of recovering and matching weapons used in the crime."

But Thakur has made it clear that police have not been able to locate any eye witnesses in the incident. Police in Siwan said they are awaiting the forensic and ballistic test reports.

Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said he will ask for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the journalist’s murder and rejected as "baseless" the criticism on law and order situation in the state.

"I am saddened and worried... If there is an attack on a journalist, it's an attack on me and that's how I am looking at the case," Kumar told reporters here.

The journalist's family and opposition BJP have demanded a CBI inquiry into it.

"We have learnt that the victim's family wants a CBI inquiry. We are taking a decision to hand over the investigation to the CBI and it will be conveyed to the Centre," Kumar said.

Condemning the incident, he said, "We will request a speedy trial. No one will be spared."

Kumar said he had full faith in the state police which was conducting its probe in a free and fair manner but "circumstances have been created" where the family was in favour of a CBI inquiry.

Image: Rajdeo Ranjan, 46, the Siwan bureau chief of the Hindi newspaper Hindustan, was shot dead on Friday night in a market near the Station Road in Siwan.