Journalist objects to minister’s bodyguards passing lewd remarks on wife, beaten up

Srinagar: A journalist was allegedly beaten up by guards of a PDP minister in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.

According to reports, the minister stood silently and watched the assault.

The journalist, Javed Malik, says he was brutally beaten up by the guards after he objected to them passing derogatory remarks on his wife.

“I have filed a complaint with the police because I was beaten at the minister's behest,” said Malik.

The assault came shortly after the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government on a plea seeking CBI probe into the alleged murder of a journalist Jagendra Singh by setting him afire in Shahjahanpur district in which an SP minister and five others have been booked.

Jagendra was allegedly set on fire by police officials during a raid at his house on June 1 and he succumbed to the injuries on June 8.

An FIR was registered against UP Minister Ram Murti Singh Verma and five cops on the basis of a complaint by Jagendra's son Raghvendra after the journalist passed away during treatment at a hospital in Lucknow.

In another case, a 40-year-old local journalist was allegedly murdered by three persons involved in illegal mining, who kidnapped him and set him ablaze apparently over his refusal to withdraw a court case in Madhya Pradesh.

The burnt body of Sandeep Kothari, who was abducted from Katangi tehsil in Balaghat district two days back, was found dumped in a farm at Butibori area in Nagpur on Saturday night.