Headlines
SC notice to Centre, UP over journalist's killing
New Delhi, June 22
The Supreme Court on Monday
issued notices to the central and the Uttar Pradesh governments on a
plea for a CBI probe into the killing of journalist Jagendra Singh
allegedly at the behest of state minister Ram Murti Verma.
A
vacation bench comprising Justices M.Y. Eqbal and Arun Mishra issued the
notice on a public interest litigation (PIL) after senior counsel Adish
C. Aggarwala urged the court to direct the CBI to probe the case.
The notice has also been issued to the Press Council of India. All three have to respond within two weeks.
PIL
petitioner S. Jain urged the court to frame guidelines and issue
directions that in the case of an unnatural death of a journalist, the
investigation should be monitored by the district and sessions judge.
Jagendra
Singh, a Saharanpur-based journalist, was doused with kerosene and
allegedly set on fire by some Uttar Pradesh police peresonnel after a
raid at his residence. He died of burn injuries on June 8.
Jagendra
Singh had allegedly earned the wrath of minister Verma for posting the
minister's alleged illegal mining and land grabbing activities on his
Facebook page.
The PIL petitioner said Jagendra Singh apprehended danger to his life from Verma and said so on his Facebook on May 22.
"Inspite
of all the evidence, no arrest has been made by the state police and
there is every likelihood of destruction of evidence by them", the PIL
said.
Saying this was no isolated incident, the PIL petitioner
said the "security of Indian journalists has long been compromised,
particularly in small towns where the local authorities can wield
enormous power".
The PIL quoted a Press Council of India report
which said 79 journalists were murdered in the country in the last
two-and-a-half years. The record of conviction has been dismal.
Telling
the court that India was most dangerous country for journalists after
Iraq, the Philippines, Pakistan and Mexico, the PIL said the
Britain-based International News Safety Institute has put the number of
journalists killed in India at 69 between 2004 and 2014.
The PIL
said Paris-based 'Reporters Without Borders' ranked India at 136 out of
180 nations in a 2015 World Press freedom Index.
A free and
independent press was one of the pillars of democracy, and Jagendra
Singh's murder was an "attack on the freedom of press and attack on
Indian democracy", the petitioner said.