BENGALURU: Jagendra Singh, a social media journalist was burnt to death in Shahajahanpur, Uttar Pradesh (UP). "Why did they set me on fire? They could have thrashed me, if they wanted to take out their grudge on me", these were the last lines said by Singh in front of the magistrate. Singh has been freelancing for fifteen years in Hindi language, reports DECCAN HERALD.
‘Shahjahanpur Samachar’ is the Facebook page that was being run by Singh, which mostly covered political and crime news in Shahjahanpur. The page has more than 4000 followers and also has non-evidential articles on corruptions of Ram Murti Verma, MLA of Akbarpur constituency and a member of Samajawadi Party.
Verma and his henchmen allegedly raped an anganwadi worker on 5th of May. The victim of this gruesome act appealed to the court saying that the local police have been refusing to file the First Information Report (FIR) seeking action against Verma. Jagendra Singh subsequently followed the events closely and posted updates on his Facebook page.
On 22nd of May, Singh wrote posted on Facebook saying, he is being harassed by the local police, politicians and goons and threatened that he could get killed by them. As expected on 1st of June, few police men encroached into Singhs’s house and had arguments about his articles relating to the rape case against MLA Verma, and then came the violent act committed by the police, Singh’s family accuses that they poured kerosene on Singh and set him on fire. However the police have a different version that Singh himself attempted suicide.
Singh was rushed to the district hospital and was later taken to the King George's Medical University in Lucknow, where he succumbed to death. The higher police officials claimed that the Singh was not a journalist and committed suicide as the police knocked his house doors to arrest him.
Soon the video of Sigh giving statements to the magistrate appeared on social media, wherein Singh lying on hospital bed said "Why did they set me on fire? They could have thrashed me, if they wanted to take out their grudge on me.” Following this, Singh’s son Ravinder filed a complaint in local police station, filed an FIR against MLA Verma, a police inspector Sri Prakash Rai of Kotwali police station and four others.
This issue was condemned by the Press Council of India (PCI) and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the national medias and the local media of UP after the video of Singh’s statement went viral.
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