The truck driver who is accused of the hit-and-run incident which killed investigative journalist Sandeep Sharma in Madhya Pradesh has been arrested. The 35-year-old journalist was investigating illegal sand mining in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind and had reportedly earlier approached police with complaints that he was facing threat to his life due to a sting operation.
The accident, where Sharma is killed by a speeding truck, was caught on camera.
#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap
— ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018
The driver has been identified as Ranbir Yadav and he hails from Gadu Pura village who claims Sharma was mowed down while he tried to save a woman.
Sharma was a stringer for a Bhopal based channel, News World TV who, along with Vikas Purohit, the local bureau chief of the channel, had conducted a sting operation against a sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Indraveer Singh Bhadoriya which allegedly showed him asking for money to allow vehicles carrying illegally mined sand from the Chambal River to pass without checks.
A few days back in Bihar’s Bhojpur district, two Dainik Bhaskar journalists were crushed to death by an SUV allegedly belonging to former Panchayat Mukhiya Ahmed Ali. The duo was returning home after covering a Ram Navami march. It is reported that one of the journalists, Naveen Nishchal, had arguments with Ali and the FIR filed by his brother mentions Ali of nursing a grouse against Nishchal.
