By Ishan Kukreti

The press club of India today held a condolence meeting for Aaj Tak journalist, Akshay Singh, who mysteriously died while investigating the infamous Vyapam Scam in Madhya Pradesh.

Present at the meeting were colleagues of the deceased, Deepak Sharma and Rajdeep Sardesai.

The members were unequivocal about their demand for substantial compensation for the family of the journalist and a transparent and fair investigation of the case with an active involvement of the journalistic fraternity.

The journalist fraternity made it amply clear that they did not trust the government and its institutions with the handling of the case. The members have raised the demand of sending the viscera sample for testing in FBI's laboratory as the AIIMS toxicology department is not well equipped.

"Akshay's death was not caused by heart attack. All symptoms point towards poisoning and is very similar to a number of deaths associated with the Vyapam Scam. We should send the viscera sample to the FBI lab as AIIMS toxicology department is equipped only to test a few poisons. This can be helpful in demystifying other deaths related to the scam", Deepak Sharma said.

Furthermore, Press Club President Rahul Jalali suggested the constitution of a monitoring body that could keep track of cases involving such atrocities against journalists on a pan-India level.

The Press Club also received a letter from MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, condemning the incident. However, Rahul Jalali made his and his colleagues sentiments clear about the same by a curt 'Thanks, but no thanks'.