Akshay Singh was a Delhi based journalist who had been in Madhya Pradesh to investigate the Vyapam scam by interviewing some of the victims’ families when he became a victim himself. As suspicious as his death almost was group India Today’s silence on the subect for many hours…it was angry tweets from many Indians than forced them to issue a statement finally.
Bhopal/Nagpur: According to the reports, Akshay Singh, AajTak’ special investigative team reporter, was found dead in Madhya Pradesh a few hours ago. Reports added that Akshay Singh was in MP to investigate Vyapam Scam. Seeing the callous attitude and no news from the employer channel, people took to social media and vented their anger against the channel.
The astonishing thing was that Aaj Tak or Headlines today was NOT the first channel to break this news! It had been circulating for a few hours on other channels when Aaj Tak suddenly woke up to the fact of his death and his status as THEIR special correspondent and finally aknowledged his death under ” suspicious circumstances”.
Seeing the callous attitude and no news from the employer channel, people took to social media and vented their anger against the channel.
Komal_India tweeted:
a reporter from @aajtak investigating Vyapam is DEAD !!!
and no news on the channel !!
they dont even care for the ppl who work for them ??
6:40 PM – 4
Dilip K Pandey tweeted
Shocking tht .@aajtak Reporter from Delhi, covering #VYAPAM died mysteriously and its not even being reported! Rise-up, at least for urself!
Manoj Khandelwal said in his tweet
Shame on u and ur journalism. Today it was Akshay tomorrow it can be any1 frm u #VyapamScam
Finally, India Today seemed to wake up and mentioned the news as a ‘Breaking news’ obituary column for its ‘special correspondent’.
They also released a statement from their MD Rahul Kanwal.
STATEMENT OF THE INDIA TODAY GROUP
The India Today Group is deeply saddened by the untimely demise of Akshay Singh. Akshay had been working with Aaj Tak as a Special Correspondent since December 2013. Akshay died in the Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh this afternoon.
Akshay worked with the Special Investigation Team of Aaj Tak.
He was an enterprising journalist who had many hard hitting investigations to his credit. He had been on an assignment in Madhya Pradesh investigating the Vyapam scam for the past four days. The cause of his sudden demise is not yet clear. We mourn the death of our valued colleague. Our thoughts and prayers are with Akshay’s family. We hope that doctors and law enforcement agencies are able to establish the cause of Akshay’s death.
But the question still remains – how did Akshay Singh die and will a fair job of his post mortem be done in the ‘state of the Vyapam scandal’ Madhya Pradesh?
It is said that Akshay had recorded a statement Akshay Singh, had on Friday called on the parents of Namrata Damor, whose body had been found under mysterious circumstances near railway tracks in Ujjain district.
Namrata’s father Mehtab Singh Damor said Akshay and two others visited their house this afternoon. After the interview was over, someone was sent to get some papers photocopied.
As Akshay was waiting outside Damor’s house, suddenly he started frothing at the mouth. He was rushed to civil hospital and later to a private hospital, but doctors failed to revive him. From there he was taken to another hospital in nearby Dahod in Gujarat, where he was declared brought dead. Jhabua district’s Superintendent of Police Abid Khan confirmed that a person named Akshay Singh had died in Meghnagar.
As per India Today reports:
‘According to some reports, 25 witnesses or accused in the high-profile scam have died under mysterious circumstances in the past five years. Some reports say 44 people associated with the scam have died so far.
The most high-profile death was that of Shailesh Yadav, son of Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. Shailesh, 50, was found dead at his father’s residence in Mall Avenue area of Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on March 25 this year. Ram Naresh Yadav, also a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was himself made an accused in the scam before getting relief from the court.
Vyapam scam is a massive admission and recruitment scandal involving politicians, bureaucrats and middlemen. Several politicians, including former education minister Laxmikant Sharma, a host of officials and scores of aspirants have been arrested in the case.
