Just after the murder of journalist Chandrika Rai, another scribe was killed on Friday. This has taken the number of journalists killed in the country in the past 15 months to at least five.
The slain journalist, Rajesh Mishra, was editor of a Hindi weekly called Media Raj, published from Rewa, 548 km from Bhopal. The police have arrested five persons including Rajneesh Banerjee, owner of Rewa-based Hindi newspaper Vindhya Bharat, and Anil Tripathi, editor of Vindhya Bharat. Banerjee also owns a chain of residential schools in the region. Rewa superintendent of police Umesh Joga said Mishra had published reports about supposed irregularities in the schools. He had also received telephone threats.

On Thursday, Tripathi called Mishra to a tea stall. While they were talking, two persons hit Mishra on the head with a weapon and escaped. He was admitted to hospital. After his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to Jabalpur, where he died.

In 2010 Sushil Pathak of Dainik Bhaskar was killed in Chhattisgarh while Umesh Rajput of Nai Dunia was murdered in 2011, also in Chhattisgarh. J Dey of Mid-Day was murdered in Mumbai in 2011.