Monday 15 June 2015

Public Outcry and Pressure Forced UP Authorities to Act Against Police in Shahjahanpur Case

Recently, there was news about the death of a social media scribe in Uttar Pradesh. The journalist Jagendra Singh was allegedly burned alive by policemen. The family members of deceased scribe allege that he was burned alive at the behest of an Uttar Pradesh minister. They further claimed that the journalist earned ire from the Uttar Pradesh Government Minister Ram Murti Verma for reporting on the illegal mining business run by him. A day before the death, the scribe posted that he was being targeted for writing on the business by the Uttar Pradesh Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Murti Verma.

Follow Up of Shahjahanpur Case

The journalist Jagendra Singh was burnt alive on June 1, 2015 at his house. Since then, the UP government has not taken any step to arrest the culprits. In the dying declaration, the journalist mentioned about the threat perception he had and the hands of Police officers at the behest of the UP minister. However, the Akhilesh Yadav government sat over this matter and did nothing. There was a huge public outcry against this incident. This agitation against government was spearheaded by the private journalists who work on field reports to generate news. After the public resentment and movement against the alleged UP Minister Ram Murti Verma, the Governor of UP had to intervene and ask the Chief Minister to take action against those responsible for this heinous crime. Despite this, the government had only initiated against the erring Police officers. No action has been taken on the UP Minister. Now, the family members of the deceased journalist want the state government to order a CBI enquiry into the incident.

Social Media Journalist Burnt Alive - Shahjahanpur Case

The social media journalist Jagendra Singh has been writing on his Facebook account about various issues faced by his place of residence. He has been residing in Shahjahanpur for a long time. Some time ago, he started writing various problems faced by the people in his Facebook account. Due to the reliability of reports posted, other news channels depended on his Facebook account information to further develop the news. He wrote about many thing related to his place of residence, including the local civic problems, heritage sites, etc. Of late, Jogendra Singh came across the illegal mining business and land grabbing activities orchestrated by the minister. This incidence angered the UP Minister and the scribe was getting threat calls from unknown people. On June 1, 2015, a group of policemen came in search of him at his house and burnt him alive before the family members. Though he was taken to the hospital, he could not be saved as there was more 80% burn injury on his body.

Caste Politics in UP

For many years, there have been incidences of violence along communal lines. The most powerful community in many parts of UP is that of the Yadavs. They try to dominate the society and crush the rebellion of Dalits. This has been happening more when the Yadav community-dominated Samajvadi Party (SP) government comes to power. When the party is in power, the Yadav community members grow bolder and do whatever they wanted to do without fear of law. The incidents like rape, illegal mining, land grabbing has been happening ever since SP came to power about 4 years back. They try to annihilate each and everybody that comes in their way. Shahjahanpur incident is just one such incident. We have to wait and see how the government is going to proceed in this matter.