A journalist associated with a national Hindi daily was killed by unidentified criminals early Friday morning.
The victim identified as Bimal Yadav, was also a sole witness in the murder of his younger brother. The incident occurred under the Raniganj police station area in Araria district at around 5.30 AM.
According to family members, the accused reached the victim’s residence and called him out. After he opened the door of his residence the criminals opened fire from the close range.
Journalist Bimal Kumar was rushed to a local government hospital where he was declared brought dead by the doctors. A preliminary police investigation shows that four armed miscreants were involved in the incident.
“Four criminals reached his house and fired at him from a close range. We have launched an investigation into the case.” Araria SP Ashok Kumar Singh told reporters.
“The FSL team has been called to collect evidence from the crime scene and making efforts to trace the criminals involved in the case”, the police said.
The incident comes a day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed that the law and order situation in Bihar was better than other states. He said that the BJP and other opposition parties were giving statements about law and order scenario only to “score political points”.
Earlier this week, an SHO was shot dead during a raid in Bihar’s Samastipur district. The police said that Nand Kishore Yadav, the Mohanpur police outpost SHO was gunned down by cattle smugglers. He sustained a bullet injury on his head and succumbed during treatment.
The murders involving a police officer and a journalist have raised serious questions about the deteriorating law and order condition in Bihar.
“I am deeply shocked over the incident. How can an incident like this happen? I have asked the officials to investigate the matter”, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on the sidelines of an event in Patna.
The opposition parties have slammed the state government for the rising crime graph in Bihar. According to the BJP, crime cases started to climb after Nitish Kumar formed a Mahagathbandhan government with the support of the RJD and Congress party.
“Law and order have completely collapsed in the state. Police officers and journalists are being killed in the state while Nitish Kumar is busy visiting other states”, BJP state president Samrat Chaudhary said.
