Bihar journalist killed, eyes gorged, body mutilated

A journalist associated with a private news channel and son of a leading state vernacular newspaper editor was killed in Bihar's East Champaran district, an official said.

The decomposed body of Manish Kumar Singh was found on Tuesday from Mathlohiar Gaddi Tola -- three days after his disappearance. The killers removed both of his eyes.

Singh is a native of Paharpur village in the same district and his father Sanjay Kumar Singh is an editor of a Hindi news paper (Areraj Darshan).

In a statement to the Harshidhi police, Sanjay Singh said that his son went to Mathlohar Gaddi Tola three days ago.

"He had posted a photograph of a get-together party of himself and two other journalist friends Amrendra Kumar and Ashlaj Alam at 8.42 p.m. Since then, he was missing and we lost contact with him.

"We searched for him for the entire night and the next two days but he has not been traced," Sanjay Singh said.

Santosh Kumar, the DSP of Areraj sub-division in east Champaran district earlier said: "As the family members of the deceased are worried about him. They were suspecting some untoward incident might have happened with him. Hence, they have lodged FIR against 12 persons including those two alleged journalists."

"The father suspects that he has property dispute with his cousin brothers and they may be involved in his murder. Besides, he also suspects that his son, who had done many investigative stories and exposed wrongdoings in the district, could have been targetted by criminals he exposed. He was receiving threatening calls for the past few days," the officer said.

"The villagers on Tuesday, spotted a pair of shoes in the farm land. When they searched further, the dead body was found from a Sareh village. The dead body was in a semi-decomposed state," the officer said.

"We have arrested journalists Amrendra and Ashlaj Alam. A bag belonging to Manish was also found in the house of Amrendra," he said.

East Champaran SP Navin Chandra Jha said that a special investigation team has been constituted to probe the murder.