“Raman was just doing his duty,” says grieving father of a journalist killed in Lakhimpur violence

Lakhimpur : A local journalist Raman Kashyap, 35, was killed at the protest site at Lakhimpur. Raman was allegedly crushed under the car. His body was found hours after the incident. His father said that he was just doing his journalistic duties.

Journalist Raman Kashyap succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, 3 September, taking the death toll in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence to nine, IANS reported. Four of them were farmers and the other four were Bharatiya Janata Party workers.

Kashyap, who worked for a local news channel, Sadhna Prime News, was sent to cover the events unfolding in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh.

After the incident he was missing his father Ram Dulari said. “He was just doing his journalistic duty. I received a phone call at 3 am about an unknown body. When I went to the mortuary…I saw it was my son,” said the grieving father. He said his son had been caught between processions that were coming from both sides.

There are other accounts of how he died. His colleague at Sadhna TV, Brijmohan Singh, was quoted by the Indian Express as saying he was beaten to death by protesters while he was shooting videos.

Locals reportedly said that Kashyap’s body was identified by family members when he was being taken for post-mortem, but an official confirmation is awaited.

An eyewitness, in a statement to a reporter for Gaon Savera, said that Kashyap, deployed for coverage where the deputy chief minister was scheduled to arrive, was run over by some cars which were travelling at high speed.

“He was then taken to Lakhimpur Kheri… he was missing until this went viral on social media and later it was confirmed that he is Raman Kashyap, the journalist who had died,” the eyewitness said.

“Raman has a boy and a girl. We should be given ₹ 50 lakh compensation and my daughter-in-law should be given a government job,” Ram Dulari said.

UP government has announced compensation for all the deceased of Lakhimpur incident. Government will pay 45 lakhs each and offers a government job to one of the family members of the deceased. Government has also filed FIR against Union Minister Mishra’s son.

Journalist Association Demands Compensation For The Kin

According to Newslaundry, the Lucknow Journalists’ Association has requested Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Chief Secretary to offer Rs 1 crore compensation to Kashyap’s family as well as a government job to one of the family members.

The association has also reportedly demanded a judicial inquiry of the incident and the booking of the accused for murder.

Abhishek Baxi tweeted, “The ninth death in yesterday’s horrific incident is of a local journalist Raman Kashyap. Maybe, just maybe, media would be a little fair while reporting the incident which took one of their own?”