Assailants on motorbikes shot dead Rajesh Mishra, a stringer for the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, on October 21, 2017, while he was outside his brother’s store in Brahmanpur Chatti, a town in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh state, according to a The Indian Express.
Mishra’s brother, Amitesh, was wounded in the attack, Ghazipur district police superintendent Somen Barma told the Press Trust of India.
Between December 3, 2017 and January 5, 2018, state police arrested four people–Ajit Yadav, Sunil Yadav, Jhanku Yadav, and Pavan Yadav–in connection with Mishra’s murder, according to news reports. Police said that the suspects are members of a gang headed by a man named as Raju Yadav, who is suspected of being the mastermind, according to a report in the Hindi daily Amar Ujala.
Police alleged that Yadav was angry about stories by Mishra that accused him of illegal sand mining and alcohol trafficking, according to reports. Police added that three of those arrested had confessed to being involved in the murder, the Indian Express reported.
Police superintendent Barma told CPJ in January 2018 that those arrested have been charged with murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.