The Mysterious Death of an Indian Muckraker

Jagendra Singh paid the ultimate price for exposing political corruption in Uttar Pradesh. But was his death murder or something even more nefarious?

BY SONIA PAUL-AUGUST 3, 2015

UTTAR PRADESH, India — The afternoon’s heat was thick and voices of the crowd low as two young men stood on a straw bed outside the ancestral home of the late freelance journalist Jagendra Singh. Over 100 people had gathered on June 15 for a sit-in here in Khutar, a village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The young men reached for a banner strung against a tree to post Singh’s photograph in its center. It stated the reason for the sit-in, with bright red Hindi script emblazoned across the top: “Justice for martyred journalist Jagendra Singh.”

The Mysterious Death of an Indian Muckraker by Thavam Ratna