A senior reporter of a national Hindi daily and his associate were brutally murdered in Bhopal on Tuesday, the Telegraph has reported. The bodies of Shahdeo Pandey (43) and his associate Mohammad Sabir were recovered after several hours of search Wednesday morning.
Details from the report:
It is believed they were throttled to death and their heads smashed with stones. They were heading towards Banviyon from Bermo, around 45km from the Bokaro steel city on a motorbike. Though the criminals escaped with the motorbike, gold rings, mobile phone and the wallet of the victims, villagers were of the opinion that it was a pre-planned murder.
The police said the reporter and his associate were probably forced to stop by someone known to him. Probably then, a gang attacked the duo and killed them both without using any weapons. Shahdeo left his newspaper office at 9pm. He had even called his younger son at 9.20pm to tell family members that he was around 7km from home and would reach in 20 minutes. But when Shahdeo did not return till 10.30pm, the family began a frantic search under the guidance of Dumri MLA Jagganath Mahto and his relative, who was close to the reporter.
The officer in charge of the Nawadih police station, Vinod Kumar, told The Telegraph that the murders were carried out by professional killers.
Shahdeo, who began his career with Dhanbad-based Hindi newspaper Awaaz, later shifted to Ranchi Express and joined Hindustan at Bermo, is survived by his wife and two sons.
