Senior journalist shot dead in Bihar

Siwan/Chatra :  Within a span of 24 hours, a senior journalist in Bihar and a TV channel reporter in Jharkhand were shot dead by unidentified gunmen, sparking protests by media persons and triggering a shutdown.

Rajdeo Ranjan, a journalist with over 20 years of experience and a bureau chief of the Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead in Bihar’s Siwan district. Five persons on motorcycles were waiting for Ranjan, who was walking down the road to his residence, and shot him twice at close range. One bullet hit his head while the other hit him in the chest.

The SP said the motive behind the murder was yet to be ascertained. Ranjan has been writing for a long time against law-breakers of the area. The killing triggered a wave of protests by mediapersons in Bihar.

Questioning Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s silence over the journalist’s murder, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy told ANI the situation in Bihar has gone beyond “Jungle Raj”. BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain, in turn, told the wire agency, “It has never been this bad in Bihar, this is not ‘Jungle Raj’, this is ‘Maha Jungle Raj’. Nitish Kumar should look after Bihar instead of worrying about Varanasi.”

The ruling party JD (U) leader Ajay Alok, however, asserted that the government would nab the culprits within 48 hours. “No matter who the criminals are the government is determined to hunt them down within 48 hours.’’

In Jharkhand, Akhilesh Pratap Singh (35), a journalist of a news channel, was gunned down at Dewaria in Chatra district. Singh was attacked near panchayat secretariat of the village on Thursday night, a police official said. A bandh was observed in Chatra town in protest against the killing.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das condemned the incident and asked the Director General of Police to arrest the assailants at the earliest.