Akshay Singh, who worked for TV Today group, died after having interviewed parents of a girl whose name figured in the Vyapam scam
Bhopal: Half an hour before his sudden death on Saturday, TV Today Group journalist Akshay Singh had been interviewing the parents of Namrata Damor, one of the 33 people linked to the Vyapam scam who have died so far.
Today, as the 38-year-old journalist's last rites were held in Delhi -- attended by a battery of Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, who took on the BJP -- Union minister Arun Jaitley said it would be "absolutely important that a very fair inquiry" be held into the death.
Namrata's father Mehtab Singh Damor, who was witness to the last hours of Mr Singh, said he had come to his house - located in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua town -- at 1 pm.
The body of Ms Damor, who had allegedly used fraudulent means to clear PMT exam in 2010, was found under mysterious circumstances in 2012, on the railway tracks in Ujjain.
"The journalist wanted to speak about my daughter and examine some files. He even wanted to get some of the papers photocopied and kept those with him," he said.
The papers were related to the petition the family had filed in court calling for a CBI probe into Namrata's death. The appeal had been turned down. "Eyewitnesses said she had apparently been killed before her body was placed on the tracks," her father said.
The journalist, Mr Damor said, was absolutely fine and they had a "peaceful conversation". "But while sitting in the room he started frothing at the mouth... We rushed him to the hospital," said Mr Damor. He had been taken to three hospitals, but the doctors had not been able to revive him.
Kailash Patidar, the doctor at the local civil hospital, said the young man had apparently suffered a heart attack. But this has been contested by Mr Singh's family, who said he had no health problems.
At least 35 people, who were either witnesses or accused in the Vyapam scam, have died over the last five years. This morning, the dean of a medical college in Jabalpur who was helping with the investigation was found dead in his hotel room in Delhi.