A 37-year-old journalist and his friend were burnt alive in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh over his reportage exposing the corruption of a village chief, Indian media reported.
Three men reportedly barged into the journalist’s house on Thursday and set it ablaze using alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
According to an NDTV report, among the three men who killed the reporter and his friend was the son of the village chief Sushila Devi. All three have been arrested, UP Police has informed.
On November 27, Rakesh Singh Nirbhik, who used to write for “Rashtriya Swaroop” - a Lucknow-based newspaper - was found with severe burn injuries inside his home in Balrampur village, located at a distance of 160km from Lucknow.
His friend Pintu Sahu, 34, died before he could be taken to a Lucknow hospital, while Nirbhik succumbed within hours of receiving medical attention.
However, before breathing his last, the journalist informed hospital authorities that he was targeted for writing regularly on a corrupt village chief and her son.
Speaking about the crime, Balrampur police chief Dev Ranjan Verma said: “The accused were trying to cover up the crime by making it seem like an accident. But there were many loopholes and we understood this was a conspiracy.”
He added there were two motives behind the murder - Nirbhik’s reports, and, a payment dispute between Sahu and Mishra.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) protested the brutal killing of the journalist and demanded punishment for the culprits.
“We hail the rapid progress that has been made in the police investigation and we call for all those involved in this appalling murder, both perpetrators and instigators, to be brought to justice as required by the law,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.
“It is nonetheless shocking that this tragedy took place after the reporter formally notified the judicial authorities about the death threats being made against him. It is high time for the Uttar Pradesh government to start debating the adoption of a law on journalists’ safety, like the one that already exists in Maharashtra state, for example.”
Singh is the second journalist to be murdered in Uttar Pradesh this year.
The first was Shubham Tripathi, who was killed by three shots to the head in Unnao, a suburb of Lucknow, in June after investigating organized crime activities linked to illegal sand mining.
According to RSF’s barometer, Singh is the fourth journalist to be murdered this year in India in connection with their journalism.
Two were killed last month. One was Isravel Moses, a Tamil reporter who was hacked to death in the southeastern city of Chennai after been identified as a journalist to members of the local underworld.
The other was Parag Bhuyan, who was deliberately mown down by a speeding car in the northeastern state of Assam, probably because of his coverage of local criminal activity.
India is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
