Lucknow : The murder of Shajahanpur-based journalist Jagendra Singh, who was allegedly set on fire by cops on June 1 and died later on June 8, is getting murkier with his family facing a backlash from the state government. As soon as the murdered scribe’s son moved a petition in Supreme Court seeking a CBI inquiry into his father’s death, the district authorities in Shahjahanpur asked the family to hand back arms licences that had been given to them after the incident and also deposit the weapons they had purchased.
The additional district magistrate asked the family to deposit their arms licence. They were also asked to return their weapons to the shop from where they had purchased them or deposit the same at the nearest police station. The district officials claimed that the licences were being taken back due to some technical reasons which they refused to clarify.
The arms licences were issued to the sons, Raghvendra and Pushpendra, on June 23 after chief minister Akhilesh Yadav met the family last month in Lucknow and the sons claimed that they feared for the life of other family members. A revolver had then been purchased in the name of Raghvendra and a rifle in the name of Pushpendra.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had also given them a compensation of `30 lakhs and an assurance of government jobs to the two sons, besides licences of arms. The chief minister had also assured a fair trial in the case in which UP minister Ram Murti Varma is an accused.
“The chief minister told us that the results of the investigations would be known within three or four days but it has been almost a fortnight and there are no results. We cannot wait endlessly for justice so we have moved a petition in the Supreme Court. We are sticking to our allegations against the minister and will fight till our last breath,” said the son Raghvendra Singh.
Pushpendra, the younger son, said, “Seeing the sudden change in attitude of officials after we filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, we are now not sure we will get the government job, earlier promised to us by the chief minister. We are not going to be cowed down by these measures though. We will continue in our efforts to get justice for our late father”. (साभार- दी एशियन एज)
