Several incidents of scribes under threat unearthed in Uttar Pradesh

Even as the state government prepares to bury the case against its minister of state, charged with getting a journalist burnt alive, a clutch of incidents of attacks on the pen-pushers are being reported from across the state.

In a related development, an NGO has filed a PIL in the Allahabad high court seeking a CBI inquiry into the case. The PIL alleges that the state government is shielding its minister accused of abetting the murder.

The journalistic fraternity in UP is already fuming over the government inaction in the case of Jagendra Singh of Shahjahanpur. He was burnt alive by policemen, allegedly at the behest of Minister of State Ram Murti Singh Verma, on June 1. Jagendra, who had been exposing the rampant land-grabbing the minister was allegedly indulging in, succumbed to burns a week later.

An FIR charging the MoS and five cops with murder has been registered. But, Verma has neither been dropped from the ministry nor arrested or even questioned yet, though the five accused policemen have been suspended.

Sources say the government is now preparing to hand over the case for investigation to the CB-CID (crime branch of the criminal investigation department), which effectively means burying the case under reams of documents and loads of files for a long time to come.

Meanwhile, more reports of journalists being attacked are pouring in. Deepak Mishra, who writes for a local Hindi paper in Kanpur, was shot two days ago, only because he had been running a campaign against gambling dens. He is stable, though serious.

Similarly, in Shamli in west UP, journalist Vinay Baliyan of 'Amar Ujala' was shot at for writing against some characters who wield considerable influence locally. In Basti, journalist Dheeraj Pandey was run over by an SUV, allegedly belonging to a former Samajwadi Party MLA Lalji Yadav. The journalist slipped into coma on Saturday. Police are yet to take any action in the case.

On Saturday, senior IPS officer Amitabh Thakur along with his wife and social activist Nutan Thakur met the family members of Jagendra Singh in Shahjahanpur. They expressed dissatisfaction over the police investigations and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter.

"It's surprising that no senior officer has visited the scene of crime in such a serious and horrific crime," Amitabh Thakur told reporters. "This raises questions about whether the family members will get justice at all," he said.

While opposition parties have been demanding that the minister be axed and arrested, on Saturday a ruling party MLA Ravidas Mehrotra demanded swift action against the errant MoS. "He should be dropped from the ministry, and treated like a common man before the law," the MLA told reporters.