A day after the forensic report gave virtually a clean chit to the accused Uttar Pradesh Minister Ram Murti Verma in the Jagendra Singh murder case, his family members have once again sought a CBI probe.
The family’s renewed demand just reflects its anxiety a day after the forensic report indicated that Singh might have burnt himself, thereby absolving the Minister and the suspended cops of the murder charge.
The scribe’s family was sitting on an indefinite dharna demanding a CBI investigation into Singh’s alleged murder but it dropped the demand after meeting the State Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav last week.
There were reasons due to which a CBI probe would be “far more reassuring”, Singh’s son Rahul told this correspondent on phone from Shajahanpur.
“It is not that we do not want a CBI investigation in the murder of our father. A CBI probe would of course be far more reassuring to us than the investigation led by the State police. But right now we trust the assurance of the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav that there won’t be injustice with us,” he told The Hindu.
Raghvendra, the elder son of the slain scribe said the theory that his father might have committed suicide and burnt himself as suggested by the forensic report was “shocking”.
“We don’t have access to the forensic report. But it was disappointing to see that it reportedly indicated that my father might have burnt himself, which is a complete lie. We still hold the police and the State machinery to be biased in favour of the Minster. Predictably, they would try to save him till the last moment but we wont stop our fight for justice,” he said.
Mr. Raghvendra said even if one believed in the theory that Jagendra killed himself, it was important to know why he did that.
The local police investigating Singh’s alleged murder said it was “too early to suggest that it was a case of suicide or murder”. The Senior Supritendent of Police, Shahjahanpur, Bablu Kumar told the media that there were two more components of the forensic report which the police was yet to recieve.
The family alleged that Jagendra Singh was burnt by the Shahjahanpur cops who barged into his house and burnt him on June 1 allegedly on the orders of the State’s Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ram Murti Verma. Singh was writing against the Minster highlighting alleged cases of corruption, land grabbing and mining against the influential Minister.
