Three unidentified men shot a journalist dead in Sasaram, Bihar, on Saturday. Police said Dharmender Singh, a correspondent with Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, was killed outside a roadside tea stall in front of his house in Rohtas district, IANS reported.

Eyewitnesses said that the assailants had fired at Singh’s chest at close range, according to The Hindu. Police have launched an investigation into the murder and are on the lookout for the shooters.

Local journalists suspect that the assailants were stone crusher mafia. “Singh has been writing stories in his paper on the regular police raids on illegal stone crushers in the area, which might not have gone down well with the powerful mafia involved in the trade”, a journalist said.

In May, Rajdeo Ranjan, a senior journalist with another Hindi daily, was shot dead in Bihar’s Siwan district. The Central Bureau of Investigation is still investigating the case.