Jagendra Singh
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Murder of Jagendra Singh refers to the killing of a journalist in India by setting him on fire on 1 June 2015. Jagendra Singh was an Indian
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
from
Shahjahanpur Shahjahanpur () is a municipal corporation, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Western Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located between Bareilly and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. History Shahjahanpur was establi ...
,
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...
. He died on 8 June 2015 from
burn injuries A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ionizing radiation (such as sunburn, caused by ultraviolet radiation). Most burns are due to heat from hot fluids (called scalding), solids, ...
suffered a week earlier. He had been set on fire by local policemen and
criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
s on the directions of Uttar Pradesh Minister
Rammurti Singh Verma Rammurti Singh Verma (; 29 July 1950 – 23 April 2021) was an Indian politician and a member of the Sixteenth Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh in India. He represented the Dadraul constituency of Uttar Pradesh and was a member of th ...
. Singh had worked for
Hindi-language Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of the Government of India, alongside English, and is the ''lin ...
media for 15 years.


Background

Singh used to run a
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
page called ''Shahjahanpur Samachar'' ("Shahjahanpur News"). Singh had written posts about Verma's alleged links to corruption and
illegal mining Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission. Illegal mining is the extraction of precious metals/rocks without following the proper procedures to participate in legal mining activity. These procedures include pe ...
. But, he had not backed the claims by posting evidence. On 4 May 2015, Rammurti Verma and some of his henchmen had allegedly raped an
Anganwadi Anganwadi () is a type of rural child care centre in India. It was started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. ''Anganwadi'' in Hindi means ...
female worker. She later told a local court that police was not filing a First Information Report (FIR) against Rammurti Verma. Jagendra Singh had taken up the news. Verma had claimed that it was a political ploy by his rivals and Singh to plant a fake case against him. On 22 May 2015, Singh wrote a post saying that he was being harassed by policemen, criminals, politicians and that he feared that he might be killed by Verma.


Attack

On 1 June 2015, according to his family members, a group of policemen and goons came in two cars in late afternoon and barged into his house in
Shahjahanpur Shahjahanpur () is a municipal corporation, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Western Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located between Bareilly and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. History Shahjahanpur was establi ...
. Initially, they got into an argument with him, reminding him that he had been repeatedly told not to write anything against Verma. Then they pinned him down, poured
petrol Gasoline (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...
on him and set him on fire. He was taken to the district hospital in Shahjahanpur initially. Later, he was shifted to
King George's Medical University King George's Medical University is a medical university located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The medical school was raised to a university by an act passed by the government of Uttar Pradesh on 16 September 2002. It is the only governmen ...
in
Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...
where he died a week later. Initially, the Superintendent of Police of Shahjahanpur, Babloo Kumar, claimed that Singh was not a journalist, and had committed suicide. The police also said he had an ongoing investigation against him and that when the police had gone to arrest him he had attempted suicide. They said they knocked on the door and waited. When they saw smoke coming out of a ventilation point, they entered and found Singh on fire. They claimed that they put out the fire and took him to the hospital. Later, the police said they were investigating the case.


Death

In his
dying declaration In the law of evidence, a dying declaration is testimony that would normally be barred as hearsay, but may in common law nonetheless be admitted as evidence in criminal law trials because it constituted the last words of a dying person. The rati ...
, Singh held Verma responsible for the attack and added that a previous attempt had been made on his life on 28 April 2015. He died of his injuries in a
Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...
hospital on 8 June. Soon afterwards, a video appeared on the internet which showed a badly burned Singh lying in his hospital bed talking to the camera. He could be heard saying, "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." Following Singh's death, his son Raghvendra Singh filed a police case. An FIR was filed against minister Verma, a
police inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...
Prakash Rai of Kotwali police station and four others. They were charged under Sections 302 (
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
), 120B (
criminal conspiracy In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance ...
), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke
breach of the peace Breach of the peace or disturbing the peace is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public order England, Wales and Norther ...
) and 506 ( criminal intimidation) of the
Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was the official criminal code of the Republic of India, inherited from British India after independence. It remained in force until it was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in December 2023 ...
.


Investigation

On 13 June 2015, 5 policemen suspected to be involved in the case were suspended, among them was Sri Prakash Rai. On 24 June 2015, ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
'' newspaper reported that according to its sources the forensic report says that the burns were self-inflicted.


Reactions

The Chairman of the
Press Council of India Press Council of India (PCI) is a statutory and quasi-judicial body in India, re-established in 1979 by the Press Council Act, 1978. Its objective is "preserving the freedom of the press by maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers ...
, Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, on 10 June called it an attack on the
freedom of press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerc ...
and asked the state government to form a Special Investigative Team (SIT) consisting of officers of good character to handle the case.
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
urged the
Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (International Organization for Standardization, ISO: ''Uttara Pradēśa Sarakāra''; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appoin ...
to start an independent inquiry into the case.
Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...
(CPJ) urged the authorities to conduct a swift and transparent investigation on the case. On 12 June 2015,
Ram Gopal Yadav Ram Gopal Yadav (born 29 June 1946) is an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh. He is the Secretary-General of the Samajwadi Party and the Member of Parliament (MP) in Rajya Sabha, since 2008. Yadav also served as Lok Sabha MP of Sambhal fro ...
, the General Secretary of
Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; ) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India. It was founded on 4 October 1992 by former Janata Dal politician Mulayam Singh Yadav and is headquartered in New Delhi. It is the third-largest political party in ...
to which the prime accused belonged, told media persons that Verma will not be removed from state cabinet. He said a FIR was not enough proof to take such action. On 14 June 2015, the family members of the journalist started an indefinite
dharna A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to ...
to demand for justice. They also told reporters that they were getting threats and were being offered
hush money Hush money is an arrangement in which one person or party offers another money or other enticement, in exchange for remaining silent about some illegal, stigmatized, or shameful behavior, action, or other fact about the person or party who has m ...
to withdraw the case. On 22 June 2015, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav Akhilesh Yadav (; born 1 July 1973) is an Indian politician and national president of the Samajwadi Party who served as the 20th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Having assumed the chief minister's office on 15 March 2012 at the age of 38, he ...
met the family and promised them an
ex-gratia (; also spelled ''ex-gratia'') is Latin for "by favor", and is most often used in a legal context. When something has been done ''ex gratia'', it has been done voluntarily, out of kindness or grace. In law, an ''ex gratia payment'' is a payment ...
of
lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...
s for the journalist's family. On 23 June, the family ended the dharna.
Forbidden Stories Forbidden Stories is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization with the mission "to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder." To achieve this, it allows journalists to send their work to Forbid ...
included Singh in ''Green Blood'', a list of 13 reporters investigating environmental issues that have been killed between 2009 and 2019.


See also

*
List of journalists killed in India This is a list of journalists killed in India See also * List of journalists killed in Bangladesh * Attacks on RTI activists in India References External linksCPJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Journalists killed in India India crime-related lists ...
*
Mining scams in India Mining scams in India (colloquially Indian mining scam) refers to a series of alleged widespread scams in various ore-rich states of India, which has generated controversy. Such issues span encroachment of forest areas, underpayment of governmen ...
* Murder of Sandeep Kothari *
Sumaira Abdulali Sumaira Abdulali, born 22 May 1961 is an environmentalist from Mumbai, India, founder of the non-governmental organization, NGO Awaaz Foundation and convenor of the Movement against Intimidation, Threat and Revenge against Activists (MITRA). She ...
, an environmental activist


References


External links


Jagendra Singh
at the
Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Jagendra 2015 deaths Murder of Jagendra Singh Arson deaths Journalists killed in India Assassinated Indian journalists Murder of Jagendra Singh 2015 murders in India June 2015 in India June 2015 crimes in Asia 2010s in Uttar Pradesh Arson in India Arson in 2015 2015 fires in Asia Deaths by person in India