New twist to scribe murder;son says Jagendra immolated himself

Shahjahanpur (UP), Aug 1: In a new twist to journalist Jagendra Singh murder case, his son Rahul today said his father "immolated himself to threaten" the police and gave a clean chit to state minister Ram Murti Verma against whom accusing finger was being pointed.

"When my father's condition had deteriorated on June 8, he had told my mother, uncle and elder brother that he had set fire himself when the police came over for carrying out raid," Rahul told newspersons here.

"He said that he was afraid that if the police arrested him, he would earn a bad name and that he had only intended to threaten the police but got burnt seriously," he said.

Rahul said he has also withdrawn the application moved in the Supreme Court for CBI inquiry and maintained that Verma had nothing to do with the incident and had been framed as a part of political conspiracy.

"My father had fallen prey to designs of some politicians and had started writing against Ram Murti Verma but now after going into the whole thing in depth we have come to know the truth," he said.

The scribe, in a bone-chilling video recorded by a magistrate moments before his death in hospital on June 8, had stated that he was burnt to death by a bunch of policemen sent to his house by Verma to punish him for a series of unflattering articles he had written against the minister.

He had also accused the minister of corruption and sexual abuse of an Anganwadi worker. Interestingly, the Anganwadi worker, too withdrew her charges against Verma recently and said that Jaginder Singh had instigated her to level the allegations against the Samajwadi Party leader.

Soon after the death of Jaginder Singh, the state government had given a compensation of Rs 30 lakh to his family besides other benefits including assurance of jobs to his sons who were staging dharna for CBI inquiry.

Meanwhile, suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur wrote to the Chief Justice of India requesting him to direct the UP government to create circumstances in which Jagendra's sons and other witnesses of this come out with the truth.

Thakur said Jagendra's sons had told him previously that their father was murdered at the behest of Verma but the way the sons and other witnesses have been forced to change their statements time and again clearly shows huge pressure and allurement on them.

PTI