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Uttarakhand Journalist Rajeev Pratap Singhs Death: Family Alleges Foul Play, Death Threats; Police Say...Will Dhami Govt Act?

Uttarakhand Journalist Death: The body of independent journalist Rajeev Pratap Singh was pulled from the Bhagirathi River in Uttarkashi 10 days after his disappearance. Officially, police have called it an accident, but now they are looking for another angle as well. The family insists it was anything but. Singh's wife has claims that he was anxious and got threat calls to take down the video of alleged corruption in the Uttarakhand District Hospital. Singh had allegedly been receiving death threats after publishing reports on corruption in a district hospital, and his sudden death has raised more questions than answers. On September 19, Singh's Alto car was found crushed in the river near Gangori. The vehicle was recovered, but he was missing. Nearly 10 days later, his body surfaced at Joshiyara Barrage. Uttarkashi SP Sarita Dobhal has maintained the death was accidental: "CCTV footage from September 18 shows him alone in the car around 11:39 pm. Prima facie, it appears he lost control and the vehicle plunged into the swollen river. The postmortem report cites internal chest and abdominal injuries as the cause of death." But Singh's family paints a very different picture. His wife, Muskan, said she last spoke to him around 11 pm on September 18, minutes before he went missing. "He told me he was feeling anxious. People were threatening him to delete videos he had uploaded exposing irregularities in a hospital and a school. At 11:50, I sent him a message, but it was never delivered. He was abducted. He did not just fall off the road," she alleged. Even the timeline raises doubts. CCTV footage shows him with friends earlier that night, then later alone in the car. Police say they found a slipper in the wreckage, but no body until 10 days later -- despite continuous searches. Singh, an IIMC alumnus, ran the YouTube channel Delhi Uttarakhand Live. His reporting on corruption in public institutions had ruffled feathers in the local establishment. Family members claim the threats had become more frequent and more menacing in the days before he disappeared. The fact that he went missing hours after expressing fear -- and was later found dead -- has amplified suspicions that his death was no coincidence. Journalists working in small towns and rural India often report without the safety nets that protect their counterparts in larger cities. According to media watchdogs, reporters exposing local corruption are especially vulnerable, facing intimidation, harassment, and at times, physical harm. Singh's death, his family argues, fits into this disturbing pattern. Earlier, a Chhattisgarh journalist, Mukesh Chandrakar, was killed after exposing corruption. Why did it take 10 days to recover his body, when the car was already pulled out on the first day? If this were purely an accident, how does one explain the threats he had complained about just hours before? Why was he alone in the car late at night after being seen with friends earlier? Will the police release the CCTV footage? Until these questions are answered, the "accident" narrative will remain under a cloud as his one slipper was found in his car and the other slipper outside, sparking abduction and torture speculation. For the police, Rajeev Pratap Singh's death is a tragic mishap. For his family, it is a deliberate silencing of a voice that dared to speak against corruption. As the investigation continues, the case highlights the precarious reality for grassroots journalists in India -- where exposing the truth can come at the ultimate cost.

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