Journalist set on fire in India for controversial Facebook posts

Jagendra Singh was to be arrested for allegations of corruption among local politicians.

Police claim journalist, Jagendra Singh, set himself on fire before they arrived to arrest him for posting allegations against Ram Murti Verma, a cabinet minister on Uttar Pradesh's legislative assembly on Facebook. However, according Singh's relatives, he was actually set on fire by the police following a claimed attack on his life after he made the published allegations.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Verma, alongside five others pointed at for a connection with the journalist's death, have been arrested, according to the Press Trust of India. Reports state that Singh had published allegation reports of corruption and land grabbing by the local politician.

From May 30, he posted a series of accusations on Facebook saying that Verma was involved in illegally acquiring valuable land and property, illegal mining and forced occupation, according to the Independent UK report. Verma represents the Samajwadi Party, a Uttar Pradesh-based democratic socialist party.

Singh had two accounts on the social media network: one is under his name, while the other one Shahjahanpur Samachar, Hindi for Shahjahanpur News, which bears his picture. The account has over 1,500 followers and 5,000 friends, while his personal account has about 3,000 friends.

Singh was reportedly to be arrested when the incident happened, with the police now claiming the journalist committed suicide.

"There was a case against Jagendra Singh. We tried to arrest him but he committed suicide," said a spokesperson for the Shahjehanpur town police. But there were no specific clauses mentioned regarding the case against the journalist, who also ran a local online newspaper.

Although the police denied all the charges pressed against them in connection with Singh's death, his family explained to a newspaper that the police set him on fire after only the task of arresting him on June 1.

"The inspector and others barged into the room and poured petrol on him and set him ablaze," said his wife, according to the Independent. The journalist died the day after the incident at a hospital located at Lucknow City.

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