Pressure from politicians, police likely forced her to change statement.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The death of online journalist Jagendra Singh took a U-turn as the lone witness in the case, and a friend of the victim, changed her earlier statement that held the police officers accountable for burning him alive.
According to the new statement given by the witness, Jagendra Singh took his own life by setting himself ablaze when the police entered his house to arrest him based on an FIR registered on June 1.
The current statement of the witness is in contrast with the dying declaration made by Jagendra moments before he succumbed to third-degree burns. In the video record of his statement, which is now circulating via social media, Jagendra can be heard talking of the involvement of Utter Pradesh State Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ram Murti Verma and some police officers in immolating him.
The new statement of the witness will open up loopholes for the minister and the police officers involved in the case, to wriggle out. But, what is interesting is the sudden change in the statement of the woman witness who had earlier said that she saw the police officer setting Jagendra on fire. A police officer was quoted by The Hindu saying, “She accepted before the police that Jagendra immolated himself when the police tried to arrest him on June 1. Her statement was also recorded before the magistrate under CrPc section 164.â€
Strangely, the witness in the case is the same woman who had earlier alleged Ram Murti Verma and his friends of gang rape. Jagendra, who took up the issue and made it a widely discussed topic in social media, earned him the enmity of the politician and was soon attacked by his goons and later allegedly killed by police officers on his instructions.
In the rape case filed in Shahjahnpur police station, the woman had alleged that Verma, inspector Sri Prakash Rai, Amit Pratap Bhadauria Kumar Dixit and Gufran raped her in the PWD rest house on May 5.
The woman had earlier claimed that she had been dragged out of the house by Gufran, who accompanied inspector Sri Prakash Rai, along with a few other men. After being able to release herself, she ran into the house to find Jagendra on fire, screaming for his life. She also claimed that the cops tried pouring petrol over her, but somehow she managed to escape.
Reacting to the sudden change in the statement of the prime witness, Rahul, the son of Jagendra said she could have been threatened and the pressure on her must have prompted her to make a contrasting statement.