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Journalism of Courage
The murder case in which Union Minister for Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises Mahabir Prasad has been named an accused has an unusual detail: victim Ram Pragats body was found in a field 7 km from his home in Ujjarpar on the morning of January 29,2008 but the police registered a case of accidental death,saying he had been hit by a jeep the previous evening at a place 5 km away.
Investigating officer Venod Kumar Barniwal said he doesnt know how the body reached the field but some people had seen Ram Pragat being hit by a jeep at Shihajijpar the previous evening. Anil Singh,who was then Station Officer of Ghaghan,said some people saw the jeep occupants lift an injured Ram Pragat after the accident. They were taking him to hospital but he died on the way,so they dumped him in the field,he said. Yet the police didnt file charges against anyone except jeep driver Ram Badan. IO Barniwal said no one else was named because the other occupants of the jeep couldnt be identified.
Now,on the courts order,when a case of murder has been registered,the police have filed an application in the trial court,requesting for copies of case papers,like Ram Pragats post-mortem report and the technical report of the jeep.
Gorakhpur DIG Aditya Mishra said: At this point of time,we cannot say anything about the investigation. We are yet to receive any paper of the earlier investigation.
Ram Pragats wife Subhawati Devi said they had a dispute with gram pradhan Rajesh Singh who wanted to build a drain which would run through their land. On the morning of January 28,2008,the police asked 10 people on either side to give an undertaking that they would maintain peace. Around 5 pm that day,she was told that her husband,who had gone shopping,had met with an accident. They searched for him all over but could not find him. Next morning,the police told the family they had discovered Ram Pragats body in a field in Makdawa Bazar area. According to Subhawati,her husband was last seen with Rajesh Singh,Gauri Shanker Gupta,Ram Badan and an unidentified man in a jeep which belonged to Mahabir Prasad. Gupta was known to be close to Mahabir Prasad. The family was convinced that Ram Pragat had been murdered but the police did not entertain his son Ghanshyams complaint. Subhawati alleged that police forced Ghanshyam to sign on some blank papers.
She said she wrote to the district SP,range DIG,zonal IG and and even the Chief Minister,requesting that a case of murder be registered. When there was no response,she filed an application in the court of the Gorakhpur Chief Judicial Magistrate. It was rejected on the ground that two FIRs could not be registered in one case. Subhawati then moved the Allahabad High Court.
We put up three grounds why this was a murder case. We were forcibly made to sign on a complaint which was prepared by the police,or the other party. We had appealed to all top police officials to reinvestigate the case. And we had pointed out that the post-mortem report hinted at murder. The court asked the CJM of Gorakhpur to look into our appeal and pass an appropriate order, said Subhawatis advocate Manoj Kumar Pandey.
The High Court order came on February 7. Three days later,the CJM ordered registration of a murder case,said advocate Virendra Dhar Dubey who appeared in the Gorakhpur court. That same evening,Ghaghan police filed a case against Mahabir Prasad,Rajesh Singh and Gauri Shanker Gupta.
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