Murder land for Media: In 24 hours, 2 journalists shot dead in Bihar and Jharkhand

Patna: Two journalists have been shot dead in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand in the last 24 hours.

On Friday evening, Rajdev Ranjan, a journalist with over 20 years of experience and the bureau chief of the Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead in Bihar's Siwan district.

Five shots were fired at him from extremely close range near Siwan's railway station.

Mr Ranjan was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. The Bihar Police says the motive for the killing is unclear and that he had no personal enmity with anyone.

Three people have been detained in the case and their interrogation is likely to start soon. Police say the role of professional shooters cannot be ruled out in the case.

"He was going to meet a relative. The fact that 5 bullets were pumped into him means that the intention was to kill. We have identified a few leads and raided a  few places and hope to make an arrest soon. I don't want to discuss the motive right now. We will do our best to uphold law and order in the state," said Mr Sunil Kumar, a senior police officer.

The body of Mr Ranjan was cremated early this morning.

Meanwhile, in Jharkhand's Chatra district, a journalist was shot dead by unidentified people on Thursday night. 35-year-old Akhilesh Pratap Singh worked for a local news channel, and was gunned down near the panchayat secretariat of his village.

Chief Minister Raghubar Das condemned the incident and asked Director General of Police DK Pandey to arrest the attackers at the earliest. There have been no arrests in the case so far.