Temple Baba Arrested in Journalist Raghavendra Bajpayee's Murder, Contract Killing to Hide Sodomy with Minor Boy

Journalist Raghavendra (left), accused Shivanand Baba alias Vikas Rathore, Nirmal Singh and Aslam Ghazi.

Sitapur, UP: The police has solved the journalist Raghavendra Bajpayee murder case that took place on March 8, 2025 in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. The person who gave the contract to kill the journalist turned out to be a temple baba, who lived in the Kardev temple in Maholi Kotwali area in disguise. The baba's name is Shivanand alias Vikas Rathore alias Vikas Mishra. He is a resident of Habibpur police station Ramkot.

According to the police, journalist Raghavendra Bajpayee had seen the baba doing sodomy with a minor boy. The journalist had talked about exposing the baba's misdeed, after which the baba gave Rs 4 lakh to the middlemen and got the journalist killed by hired shooters. According to the police, Baba Shivanand, who gave the contract, and the middlemen Nirmal Singh son of Veer Bahadur Singh and Aslam Ghazi son of Akhtar Ali have been arrested.

Police have arrested three people, including a temple baba, on charges of murder of journalist Raghavendra Bajpayee of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/FhZUkbRjyc

— VOiCE OF MEDIA (@voiceofmedia1) April 10, 2025

Now the police is looking for those two shooters who are still absconding, but the police have collected their names and addresses. The absconding shooters have a criminal background and are residents of Sitapur. The police have recovered Rs 17,000 in cash from middleman Nirmal, Rs 15,000 from Aslam Ghazi and mobile phones from the three. 

Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh Police has solved the murder mystery of journalist Raghavendra Bajpayee. pic.twitter.com/6vnqrY722Q

— VOiCE OF MEDIA (@voiceofmedia1) April 10, 2025

According to the police, the reason for the delay in the disclosure was that it had to investigate from 15 angles. The police has claimed to have got a lot of evidence against the accused. After the incident, on the instructions of SP Chakresh Mishra, three teams were deployed under the leadership of Crime Branch Inspector Satyendra Vikram Singh. A total of 12 teams started their investigation under the leadership of ASP Dr. Praveen Ranjan Singh. More than a thousand numbers were put on the radar in 34 days. More than a hundred suspects were questioned. The teams also searched about 250 CCTV cameras.

Journalist Raghavendra Bajpayee was shot dead with four bullets on March 8, 2025 at around 3:30 pm on the Hempur Overbridge. Bajpayee, a resident of Vikas Nagar Colony of Maholi, was the Maholi Tehsil correspondent of Dainik Jagran.