Five arrested for Bihar journalist’s murder, police say one has confessed
Bihar police arrested
five people in connection with the murder of senior journalist Rajdeo Ranjan,
claiming a major breakthrough in the case on Wednesday. Among the five, police
identified one Rohit Kumar as the main culprit who the additional director
general of police (ADG), headquarters, said confessed to the crime. Ranjan was shot down on
May 13 near the Siwan railway station. The 42-year-old was the bureau chief of
Hindi daily Hindustan, a sister concern of Hindustan Times.
Chief minister Nitish
Kumar has been facing acute criticism over the slide in law and order in the
state, with political rivals claiming this was a return of the 90s ‘jungle raj’
lawlessness. The issue has also caused public fissures in the grand alliance,
with the Rashtriya Janata Dal taking Kumar to task over Mohammad Shahabuddin as
well.
Police also arrested
Vijay Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Vishnu Kumar and Sonu Kumar Gupta. All five,
incidentally, are in the 20-25 age group. None of them have any history of
crime, police said. “The arrests were made
from different parts of Siwan on Wednesday morning and a country-made pistol of
7.65 mm bore and two live cartridges were recovered from the arrested youths,”
ADG Sunil Kumar said. The recovered pistol
matched the bullets recovered from the crime scene, he added. Three motorcycles
were also recovered from their possession and will be sent for forensic tests... read more: