UP Journalist Murder: Police Say Priest, Caught Raping Minor Boy, Was Mastermind; Family Smells Conspiracy

New Delhi: A month after Dainik Jagran journalist and RTI activist Raghvendra Bajpai was shot dead by bike-borne assailants in Sitapur, the Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said the murder was planned by a priest whom the scribe had allegedly seen raping a minor boy in the temple. 

Police said that the temple priest got the 35-year-old journalist killed as he was concerned that he might expose the priest’s act to the world. Bajpai’s family, however, refused to believe the police theory and alleged that there was a deeper conspiracy behind the murder, and that it was linked to Bajpai’s journalism work and recent coverage of corruption and irregularities in the purchase of land and paddy in the district.

Rashmi Bajpai, his wife, said that she did not trust the local police. “I want a CBI inquiry. I am not satisfied with this. They are cooking up stories,” she said in a video statement seen by The Wire soon after the Sitapur police claimed to have cracked the case.

Bajpai worked as a reporter for Hindi daily Dainik Jagran as its Maholi (tehsil) correspondent in Sitapur, a district adjoining Lucknow. He had reported on stories about the alleged corruption in purchase of paddy and land. On March 8, he was shot dead by bike-borne assailants on a highway. The murder led to outrage among the journalist community in Sitapur and other districts of UP, who demanded justice and compensation for the family.

On Thursday, Sitapur police said they arrested three persons – Vikas Rathore alias Baba Shivanand, Nirmal Singh and Aslam Ghazi. Police said that Rathore, the priest of the Karyadev Mandir in Maholi, orchestrated the murder.

Superintendent of police Chakresh Mishra said that Rathore had been living in the temple as the assistant of the head priest Ramakant Mishra since the last few years. He was living under the alias of Vikas Mishra, said the police. Rathore assisted the chief priest in puja activities and also earned money on the side through other activities involving astrology and tantrik rituals.

SP Mishra said that Bajpai had for the last three to four months been visiting the temple, where he befriended Rathore. Sometime in early February, the officer said, Bajpai, while visiting the temple, allegedly saw Rathore having sex with a minor boy who helped in the management of the premises. Rathore had sexual relations with other men too, police said.

Rathore scripted a plan to get Bajpai killed as he was afraid that the scribe would expose him. “It was a temple and he was engaged in profane acts. His social prestige and financial standing would be harmed if he (Bajpai) did that (expose him to the world),” the officer said. 

Rathore then hired two persons, Nirmal Singh and Aslam Ghazi, both with criminal antecedents and paid them Rs 4 lakh to get Bajpai killed. The two men then hired two professional shooters who committed the murder, the police said. 

SP Mishra said that Rathore had lured Bajpai to come to the temple on three consecutive days, March 6, 7 and 8. “On March 8, he called him under the pretext that he was not well. The same day, he was murdered,” said the officer.

Police said that after the murder was committed, Rathore allegedly celebrated it with a male rasleela artist. The two first went shopping before having dinner at a restaurant in Sitapur and then stayed overnight at a hotel. They ordered six beers and bhang. The police said that Rathore also had “unnatural” sex with the artist.

Bajpai’s wife Rashmi alleged that this was all a coverup. She said that her husband would only visit the temple for puja and had no links with the priest. She alleged that though the priest may have been involved in the murder in some way, he could not have planned it alone. “It’s possible that powerful people took the baba’s help. The baba could not have executed such a big incident on his own,” said Rashmi. 

“This is the work of powerful people. It cannot be the work of some small fry. People are not blind. I am not blind that we will believe anything,” she said.

Rashmi said that by focusing the investigation on the priest, the issues that Bajpai had reported on were sidelined. “Did they even probe the paddy and the land scams? If they had to arrest the baba, why did they take 34 days?” asked Rashmi.

She has maintained that Bajpai was killed due to his journalism work. “He had published some news reports and those affected by these reports were unhappy with him,” Rashmi stated in her police complaint soon after the murder last month.

Sitapur police said that they cracked the case after investigating over a dozen possible disputes Bajpai had with people. This included ones linked to him publishing news in his paper about paddy purchase, which had led to investigation and departmental action against some government employees, and the purchase of land by a lekhpal (revenue officer) through a local property dealer. The mutation was cancelled after a complaint. 

 Police said they investigated at least 15 such points through surveillance and interrogated around 100 people but did not find anything adverse to link any of them to the incident. 

Sitapur police said that on March 11, three days after the murder, when the police first visited the temple to question Rathore, he denied having any special acquaintance with him and immediately contacted a high court lawyer to press for anticipatory bail.

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