UP journalist shot dead after ‘threatening to expose temple priest aide’s sex crimes’

Over a month after journalist Raghvendra Bajpai’s murder in Sitapur, police have told the media that he was killed by contract killers hired by the aide of a temple priest. Bajpai had threatened to expose the aide for sexually assaulting a minor on the temple’s premises, police said.

At a press conference on Thursday, Sitapur SP Chakresh Mishra said the aide had paid Rs 4 lakh to two middlemen for the contract killing. The police have arrested three accused so far, including the two middlemen, while the shooters are absconding. 

Bajpai was shot dead in broad daylight on Hempur railway overbridge in Imalia Sultanpur police station area on the Lucknow-Delhi National Highway on March 8. He worked as a correspondent for the daily newspaper Dainik Jagran.

Several global press associations and organisations had condemned the murder, including the UNESCO director-general, the Committee to Protect Journalists and International Federation of Journalists.

Police had formed several teams to investigate the case.

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