Journalist burnt to death in Madhya Pradesh, kin cry murder

BHOPAL

: A

journalist

with a Hindi daily was burned to death under suspicious circumstances in Sagar on Wednesday night, triggering outrage in the media community and leading to a departmental inquiry against the local SHO, who has been taken off duty.


The victim, Chakresh Jain, was found with 90% burns in Shahgarh town, some 50km from Sagar, on Wednesday. His family claims that Aman Choudhary, an official of Janpad panchayat, and his accomplices murdered him.

Journalist death sparks anger

A man and his men poured petrol on Chakresh and set him on fire,” said his brother Raj Kumar Jain. Choudhary is also in hospital with burn injuries, and alleges that Jain set him on

fire

and tried to kill him.

Jain and Choudhary had a long-running feud. In the past, Choudhary had filed a case under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against Jain.

On Wednesday, Choudhary filed a complaint that Jain tried to burn him alive, and police registered a case under Section 307 (attempt to murder) against Jain. But soon, Jain was found with horrific burns and died in hospital a few hours later.

His death sparked a wave of anger in the area. SP Amit Sanghi rushed there to take stock of the situation and attached SHO Zahid Khan to the police lines. The SP initiated a probe against Khan for not investigating the case properly, and failing to ensure that Jain’s dying declaration was recorded, police sources said.

A special team has been constituted to investigate the case. “The best police officers of the district will be the part of the team. They will camp in Shahgarh and probe every aspect of the case,” the SP told mediapersons.