A journalist who had reported on a case of alleged land grabbing was severely beaten by a group of men and tied to a motorcycle and dragged for almost 100 metres in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh.
The incident occurred a fortnight after another journalist, Jagendra Singh, sustained fatal burn injuries during a police raid on his home in Shahjahanpur district.
Haider Khan, the journalist in Pilibhit, was admitted to hospital with serious injuries after Saturday’s attack. Khan works as a stringer for a TV news channel.
"Yesterday, I got a call at about 6pm that the witness in a Rs 2.8-lakh robbery case had met with an accident and I should come to the spot. When I reached the spot, I was surrounded by Anand, his son and three or four more people,” Khan told the media on Sunday.
“They then started beating me up. They hit me on my temple with a revolver and then dragged me for 100 meters behind a (motorcycle)," he added.
Police registered a case against four people and launched a hunt to trace them.
"We have registered a case against four people," said JK Shahi, Pilibhit’s superintendent of police. He said a group of people were unhappy with a report done by Khan.
In the case in Shahjahanpur, journalist Jagendra Singh succumbed to his burn injuries on June 8. His family alleged police officials had set him on fire while raiding his home.
Singh had reportedly angered influential people with several posts on his Facebook page about alleged encroachment of land and a gang-rape. Uttar Pradesh minister Ram Murti Verma was named in several of Singh’s posts.
An FIR filed by Singh's son alleged the policemen who doused the journalist with kerosene and set him on fire were sent by Verma. Singh also narrated the incident in a dying declaration.
Five policemen who were part of the team that raided Verma’s home have been suspended while Verma is reportedly on the run.
(With inputs from ANI)
