Author:
Publication: Opindia.com
Date: June 13, 2017
URL: http://www.opindia.com/2017/06/jagendra-singh-the-journalist-who-was-burnt-alive-but-failed-to-shake-lutyens/
These days the discourse in the Indian media is high on “freedom”. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious and cultural freedoms, academic and intellectual freedoms. I can open any English language newspaper today and read about how Modi has wrecked press freedom. I can hear them shouting from the rooftops that their voices have been stifled.
Whatever virtues the Indian media might have, irony is clearly not their strong suit.
The voices have recently grown louder with the CBI raid on Prannoy Roy. In a clear violation of press immunity, the CBI raided residence of NDTV founder-promoter Prannoy Roy in connection with an alleged financial fraud.
Oops! Did I say “press immunity”? I meant “press freedom”. I always struggle with these concepts of having immunity vs having freedom. Anyway…
But there is one voice that I cannot hear. A voice that is gone forever. All that we have left is a few screams on tape.
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DNA
Journalist burnt alive: Why did they burn me, asked Jagendra Singh Lying on hopital bed
DNA Web Team
13 June 2015
A video of Jagendra Singh. the journalist who was burnt alive. has emerged where he is seen lying scaled on a hospital bed. in the video Singh says that police inspector Sri Prakash Rai and his team barged in to the house and assaulted him instead of just arresting him. He then says. "Why did they have to burn me? If the ministers and his goondas had a grudge. they could have beaten me instead of pouring kerosene and burning me.
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That’s the job of a journalist. Asking questions. And Jagendra Singh wanted to ask why “they” had to burn him alive? On his death bed, the helpless man wanted to ask why the “minister and his goondas” – which included police officers – could not have given him a lesser punishment, such as beating him up.
Who is Jagendra Singh?
Well, there are journalists who are burnt alive and have to beg for the more merciful “punishment” of being beaten up. And then there are journalists who have to be rushed to TV studios and Thinkfests with severe third degree injuries from getting trolled on Twitter.
Jagendra Singh belonged to the former category. His journalism was a no-frills operation, for he ran a mere Facebook page called “Shahjahanpur Samachar” – basically he did not even have a proper job, but he had a passion for journalism.
For those who don’t know, Shahjahanpur is one of those sleepy little towns in Uttar Pradesh that never make the news. Shahjahanpur is definitely a bigger town than Dadri, though, but I digress.
On the Facebook page of Shahjahanpur Samachar, this man Jagendra Singh ended up writing extensively about alleged corruption of one Ram Murti Singh Verma, a minister in the then Akhilesh Yadav government of Uttar Pradesh.
So, a journalist accuses a minister of corruption. The next thing, the journalist is burnt alive and leaves behind a dying declaration (caught on video, no less) accusing people in power of burning him. (the video contains strong words and visuals, discretion advised)
Jagendra Singh was taken to a hospital. Apparently a police officer told the doctors not to tend to Singh and just let him die. The doctors did not listen to this ‘advice’ and transferred the grievously injured o Lucknow hospital, but Jagendra died of his burns a week later, back in June 2015.
What happens next? Does the Press Club hold an emergency meeting to begin a nationwide movement for justice to this journalist? Do intellectuals start returning heaps of awards to stir the national conscience?
No, of course not! The minister in question was secular, a member of the Samajwadi Party. The state of Uttar Pradesh was ruled at the time by the “Achche Ladke” team headed by Akhilesh Yadav.
Lutyens crowd was more interested in discussing Gajendra (Chauhan) than Jagendra.
So, nothing happens. Intellectuals keep their awards. Journalists keep raising awareness against the scourge of internet trolls. And activists demand FTII be saved.
Nothing to see in Shahjahanpur. A few months later, Dadri would go on to happen in “Modi’s India”. That’s when the cameras came, crying aloud for freedom.
Meanwhile the family of Jagendra tries to fight back, alone. They don’t get prime time television slot that may shake the conscience of the nation.
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DNA
The Shahjahanpur journalist used to run Shahjahanpur Samachar, a page on Facebook where he had written extensively against alleged cases of corruption and illegal mining by Minister for Backward Classes Welfare Ram Murti Singh Verma. The page had a good number of followers and this allegedly angered the minister.
Jagendra's son Raghvendra had filed a complaint against the minister and the police inspector after his fathe succumbed to the injuries.
FIR had been registered against Ram Murti Singh Verma, Inspector Sri Prakash Rai besides four others identified as Gufran, Akash Gupta, Amit Pratap Singh and Bhure for allegedly killing Jagendra Singh by setting him afire, police said. The FIR has been lodged under IPC 302 (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
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But the law had to take the case to its logical conclusion. Something had to be done about the complaint lodged by Jagendra Singh’s son.
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The Indian Express
Manish Sahu
August 1, 2015
UP journalist death: Sons say Jagendra Singh self-immolated, demand a clean chit for minister
Jagendra Singh’s sons have given a clean chit to UP minister Rammurti Singh Verma and endorsed the police theory that their father had immolated himself at his Shahjahanpur residence on June 1.
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Oh thank god! Jagendra Singh’s sons had earlier lodged a complaint against the minister. That was before they had a chat with their mother and discovered that his father had planned to threaten self-immolation all along. So nice of these two upright young sons to come forward and actually “demand a clean chit” for the minister.
Lest I am accused of not acknowledging good work by the Akhilesh government, let me also tell you that earlier the then state government announced 30 lakh rupees as compensation and two government jobs for the believed family. All of these just a day before media reports suggested a suicide angle. Kaam bolta hai, you see.
Who says that “ghor kaliyug” has come? It is moments like these that restore our faith in humanity.
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In a U-turn, 'sole witness' says social media journalist committed self-immolation
Mohammad Ali
June 18, 2015
In his dying declaration, Jagendra, however, claimed he was burnt by the local police at the behest of Minister Ram Murti Verma
The woman friend of Jagendra Singh, the alleged sole witness in the murder of the Shahjahanpur based social media journalist, made a complete U-turn and claimed in her statement given to the police on Tuesday that he was not burnt by police men, but immolated himself when the police raided his house to arrest him in a case registered against him on June 1.
However, Jagendra, in his dying declaration which was also video recorded moments before he breathed last and was watched by people the world over, had claimed that he was burnt by the local police at the behest of Minister Verma for writing against him.
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Fortunately, the alleged sole eyewitness in the alleged murder of the alleged journalist (hope I have used “alleged” sufficiently many times) also remembered just in time that it was actually a self-immolation. What an awful misunderstanding that could have hurt the image of one very upright individual minister in the secular government of Akhilesh Yadav.
Here ends the story of Jagendra Singh. You won’t hear him telling his wild stories ever again. His Facebook page has not been updated since then.
His voice was not silenced. His freedom was not curbed. He did not need a press conference at the Press Club of India in Lutyens’ Delhi. |