The volte face comes as a big surprise as the family members had recently sat on a dharna in Shahjahanpur demanding a CBI inquiry into the case.
In a startling turnaround in the immolation of Shahjahanpur-based journalist Jagendra Singh, allegedly by cops at the behest of a minister, his son has pronounced the minister accused of the murder "innocent". He has also said that his family would withdraw the petition in the Supreme Court praying for a CBI inquiry into the matter.
The volte face comes as a big surprise as the family members had recently sat on a dharna in Shahjahanpur demanding a CBI inquiry into the case. They had also met UP CM Akhilesh Yadav with this demand. There are reports that the accused minister had managed to allure the family members with some tempting offer.
"Earlier I was not aware of the facts. Now, I have come to know that my father had got involved with some bad elements who were hatching a conspiracy against the minister. Now I feel that the minister is innocent, and we don't want the CBI inquiry anymore," Jagendra's son Rahul (17) told reporters on Saturday. He also said that his father had set himself afire, though he was not present in the house at the time of the incident.
Before Rahul, Jagendra's lady friend Shalini, who is the lone witness of the scribe's immolation, had also reneged on her original stand to say that the journalist had immolated himself when the cops came to arrest him on June 1 in an old case. She also said that she had lodged a false rape case against the minister at Jagendra's instigation. The case has since been withdrawn.
The statements of the two important parties in the case fly in the face of Jagendra's videotaped dying declaration wherein he had said that the cops had poured petrol over him and set him afire at his house at the behest of minister Ram Murti Singh Verma.
The journalist had been running a vicious campaign against the minister on Facebook, apparently in concert with the minister's political rivals. Initially, this was said to be the main reason behind the minister conspiring to eliminate him. However, in a queer turn of events, the story has now turned upside down with the deceased himself becoming the accused.
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