Journalists from across Mumbai on Friday gathered at the statue of Gandhiji in Mantralaya to protest the murder of their Ratnagiri colleague Shashikant Warishe.

Warishe (48) was mowed down by an SUV allegedly driven by land dealer Pandharinath Amberkar on Monday. Warishe died in hospital the next day.

It has been alleged Amberkar, now arrested and booked for murder, used to threaten any person who opposed land acquisition for a proposed refinery in the area.

An article written by Warishe against Amberkar had appeared in a local Marathi newspaper on the morning of the incident, which took place near a petrol pump in Rajapur, some 440 kilometres from Mumbai.

The protesting journalists, who gathered at the state secretariat in the south of the metropolis at noon, sought that the trial be conducted in a fast track court and the accused be given exemplary punishment.

Participants in the protest said those involved in the killing as well as its larger conspiracy should be unravelled through a special investigation team (SIT) and the accused must be slapped with the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Warishe's kin must be given Rs 50 lakh compensation, said Pravin Puro, secretary of Vidhimandal and Mantralaya Pratrakar Sangh, among the journalist associations that took part in Friday's protest.

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