Two armed men shot at Pankaj Kumar Mishra, a journalist with a Hindi daily, and looted Rs 1 lakh in cash and a laptop from him in Arwal district, around 100km southwest of Patna, on Thursday.

Pankaj, in his 40s, has been admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital where his condition is stated to be stable. He received a bullet injury in his back. Pankaj told the police that two youths - identified as Ambika Verma and Hemanti Nandan Baghela alias Kundan - signalled to him to stop when he was returning home after withdrawing Rs 1 lakh from a local bank.

As soon as Pankaj stopped his bike near Sone Bhadra Mathia village, Ambika requested to give him and his relative a lift on his motorbike. 'When I agreed and asked them to sit, one of (Ambika) fired at me,' Pankaj said. 'I fell on the ground after receiving a bullet injury. The assailants fled with the cash and my laptop.'

The two assailants are said to be close relatives of Kurtha MLA Satyadev Kushwaha's personal assistant Anant Verma's son Kundan and nephew Ambika. Pankaj was rushed to the local primary health centre from where he was later referred to PMCH.

Arwal superintendent of police (SP) Dilip Kumar Mishra confirmed the arrest of one of the two named accused - Kundan - from Telpa police station area. 'Raids are on to nab the second accused Ambika,' he told The Telegraph over phone. Arwal sub-divisional police officer Shailendra Kumar said Kundan had confessed to the crime and said that Ambika fled with the looted money. 'The weapon was used in the crime is also with Ambika,' the SDPO quoted Kundan as saying.

Apart from contributing to a vernacular daily, residents said, Pankaj ran the customer service centre of a nationali-sed bank in his village under the jurisdiction of Banshi police outpost in Arwal district. 'I have been running the customer service centre for the past eight years. But no untoward incident had taken place earlier,' Pankaj told a group of journalists at the PMCH.

He said the murderous attack on him was pre-mediated. An FIR has been lodged with the Banshi police station in connection with the incident.