Two people arrested in Bihar journalist murder

Two persons were arrested in connection with the recent murder of a journalist of a prominent vernacular daily, police said on Tuesday.

A journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, Dharmendra Singh,  was shot dead by some unidentified assailants when he was having tea at a roadside stall in his village Amra talab of Rohtas district on Saturday.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe the murder case, arrested two persons during a raid late last night on Monday, a statement issued by the office of the Director General of Police (DGP) said. Those arrested have been identified as Radhika Raman Rai and Manish Singh, Patna Zonal Inspector General N H Khan said.  Both the accused have been arrested from two separate places of Rohtas district, he said.

While Rai is the resident of Rohtas district, Manish, who was wanted by the police in three cases lodged in Rohtas district, is the resident of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the statement said. On the basis of information available from those arrested, police has also seized a motorcycle (BR-24 N 9904) which was used in the crime, it said. Police is interrogating the duo and conducting raids to nab other absconding culprits, the statement said, adding that the matter is being investigated from all angles.

Dharmendra, who is survived by his wife and a son, had an old rivalry with Pappu Singh, currently lodged in a jail and is a resident of Dumariya village under Mufassil police station of the district, it said.

On the basis of a written complaint of Ravindra Singh, brother-in-law of the journalist, police lodged an FIR with Mufassil police station against four named and two unnamed persons in the murder case, the statement said. "We have already constituted an SIT to probe the case and chargesheet would be submitted against those arrested in the case on a priority basis and would be put to speedy trial," Khan said. The murder of the journalist in Rohtas has come close onthe heels of killing of a scribe of a Hindi daily in Siwan,Rajdeo Ranjan, in May.