A journalist’s body was recovered by local police at a village in Bihar’s East Champaran district on Tuesday.
The scribe, working for a private news channel, had gone missing on Sunday.
Local police said the body of Manish Kumar Singh was recovered from the pond at Mathlohiyar-Gadditola under Harsidhi police station of Areraj subdivision in East Champaran district on Tuesday after some villagers spotted his shoes and informed the police.
When asked whether it was a case of murder or something else, East Champaran Superintendent of Police Navin Chandra Jha told The Hindu, “we can only tell you about this after the body’s post-mortem report”. “The body is badly decomposed so we’re sending it to the Srikrishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur for autopsy. The father of the deceased has lodged a case three days ago of abduction of his son,” the SP said.
“Two persons have been arrested in the case in which 10 others too have been named accused. The body was sent for autopsy and further investigation is on to arrest the evading accused persons,” Santosh Kumar, sub-divisional police officer, Areraj, said.
The two arrested have been identified as local mediapersons Amrendra Kumar and Asjad Alam with whom Manish was last seen in a CCTV footage seized by the local police.
Manish’s bag, mike and bluetooth devices were recovered from Mr. Amrendra Kumar’s residence.
“Those absconding in the case too would be arrested soon. Police have launched an extensive manhunt to nab them,” Pramod Kumar Paswan, Station House Officer of Harsidhi police station, said.
Manish’s father Sanjay Kumar Singh, who is associated with a vernacular newspaper and is an RTI activist, had filed a police complaint of his son’s abduction on Sunday.
“Land dispute and the exposes I’ve been making in my newspaper might be reasons for my son’s murder,” Mr. Singh told local mediapersons. Mr. Singh is said to be involved in a land dispute with his relatives in the village.
