Press Council of India Chairman Justice C. K. Prasad, on Wednesday, condemned the killing of the journalist Jagendra Singh and said the Uttar Pradesh government must form a Special Investigation Team to investigate the alleged involvement of a U. P. Minister in setting the journalist afire in Shahjahanpur district in U. P.
An FIR has been registered against the U.P. Minister Ram Murti Singh Verma and five others for their alleged involvement in the killing of Jagendra Singh by setting him afire over a Facebook post on the Minister’s alleged involvement in illegal mining and land grabbing.
Addressing the media here, Mr. Prasad said the Minister has been named in the FIR and this puts the onus on the U.P. government to conduct an impartial inquiry.
“The U.P. government must constitute a SIT and people with impeccable character and integrity must be included in it so that the truth can be brought out,” Mr. Prasad said.
Fact-finding team“A fact-finding team will be constituted by the PCI. The team will make a report based on its inquiry and it will be submitted to the PCI. Further investigation into the case must take into account the findings of the fact-finding team,” he said.
PCI member K. Amarnath said 79 journalists have been killed since 1992. “So far, there have been no convictions in 73 of the 79 cases,” Mr. Amarnath said.
