Truck mows down scribe who exposed mining ring

BHOPAL: A television journalist, who exposed an alleged nexus between police and the sand mining mafia in Chambal region, died on Monday after he was run over by a truck in Bhind, more than 500 kilometers from Bhopal.

Sandeep Sharma, 35, who was working as a stringer with a news channel was on his way to the Press Club at Bhind on his bike at around 8.30 am when a truck hit him from behind. The truck driver fled from the spot but left the vehicle at a nearby garage.

Police arrested the accused driver, identified as 19-year-old Randheer Yadav, in the evening and Chambal zone inspector general of police, Santosh Singh, said he was being interrogated. The truck that was being driven by Yadav is owned by one Bhaskar Sharma, who is involved i n transport business, police said.

Bhind police have formed a sixmember special investigation team to look into the case after MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that a high-level probe would be carried out.

Local journalists said the ‘accident’ was an orchestrated murder as Sharma, survived by his wife and two children, had ‘exposed the nexus between police and the mafia’. “He was an honest journalist. He exposed how police in the district are hand-in-glove with the mining mafia,” said Bhind Press Club president Satyanarayan Sharma.

Sharma had carried out a sting last year in which the sub-divisional police officer was shown