A journalist in Madhya Pradesh’s Pipliyamandi was shot dead at his office in a busy market on Wednesday night, a murder his family members said was carried out by local bootleggers he exposed recently.

Kamlesh Jain, 42, was alone in his office at Lovely Chouraha filing stories for the Indore-based Hindi daily that he worked for when two suspects came on a motorcycle, shot him twice at close range and sped away.

Pipliyamandi is a small town, 15kms from the district headquarters Mandsaur. Police said this is the first time that such an incident has taken place in this town.