Minister Clarifies After Mocking Journalist Who Died Probing Vyapam Scam

A minister in Madhya Pradesh has been accused of showing appalling insensitivity with his dismissive comment on a journalist who died while investigating the Vyapam recruitment scam. "What journalist? Can there be a bigger journalist than me?" Kailash Vijayvargiya remarked on Saturday night, hours after the death.

Mr Vijayvargiya has since tried to clarify that the remarks were made "casually, off the record," though he was speaking directly to cameras. As part of his attempts at damage control, he has decided to visit the journalist's family this morning.

"The journalist's death is very sad. No one appreciates more than me what journalists go through while covering a story. On Saturday night, during a casual conversation with an ABP reporter, he said something and I dismissed it  - now the off the record conversation is being sensationalized. I don't want to defend myself but I ask journalists - do you think Kailash Vijayvargiya will say something so insensitive?" the minister said in a statement today, adding that he was "waiting" for a reply to his question.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who has been demanding a larger investigation into the Vyapam scam and the unusual number of deaths since it surfaced in 2012, tweeted: "Kailash Vijayvargiya's comment on journalists is condemnable. It exposes his ego. He should apologise to journalists."

The journalist, Akshay Singh, is among 35 people to die mysteriously in connection with the scam that involves politicians and bureaucrats allegedly accepting kickbacks in exchange for allowing imposters to take the recruitment exam for government jobs and admission to colleges.

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Akshay Singh died suddenly when he was in Jhabua, speaking to the family of a girl named in the scam. Witness accounts suggest the 38-year-old journalist started frothing at the mouth and collapsed while talking to the girl's father. A doctor had said that he died of a heart attack, but Delhi's AIIMS hospital is now handling a medical investigation into how he died.