Days after it was reported that the wife of an Islamic cleric chopped off his penis resulting in his death, the New York Post (NYP) misled its readers by clever misrepresentation and wrong imagery to show that it was about a Hindu priest.
In an article published on Monday (June 28) and authored by one Yaron Steinbuch, NYP alleged, “Third time was definitely no charm for this polyamorous priest.” The same keyword of ‘priest’ was used in the headline as well. But, the article later specified that the man was a ‘cleric’ identified as one 57-year-old Maulvi Vakil Ahmed.
To further create confusion in the minds of the readers about the religious affiliation of the man, NYP used the picture of a Hindu Sadhu holding a Diya as the featured image of the article. In the caption of the image, the publication went on to identify the representative image of the Hindu man as a ‘cleric’.
On being called out by netizens, NYP quickly fixed the featured image and replaced it with a stock image of a police van. It must be mentioned that the majority of readers of the New York Post are not Indians but Americans. As such, the use of a wrong image to depict an ‘Islamic cleric’ only added to the ignorance and prejudice held by the international community against the Hindus.
The Background of the case
The said incident took place in the Shikarpur village Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Bhaurakala police station area. The cleric, Maulvi Vakil Ahmed, was bobbitised after his wife learnt that he wanted to marry for the third time. While he was asleep, the accused chopped off his penis that eventually led to his death.
While speaking about the incident on Wednesday (June 23), Bhaurakala Police Station Jitendra Teotia said that the middle-aged man had died under suspicious circumstances. Although his family members wanted to bury him immediately, the police reached the spot and sent the body for post-mortem. During the autopsy, the wound in his private parts and the injury marks on his body came to light. The deceased worked as a cleric in a mosque in Bhaura Khurd village.
मुजफ्फरनगर- मौलवी वकील अहमद की गुप्तांग पर छुरी से हमला करके हत्या। पत्नी हाजरा गिरफ्तार। मौलवी तीसरा निकाह करना चाहता था, इस पर विवाद हुआ। भौराकलां क्षेत्र की वारदात। #Muzaffarnagar #Up
— Sachin Gupta | सचिन गुप्ता (@sachingupta787) June 24, 2021
The accused was identified as one Hazra, the Maulvi’s first wife. During the interrogation, she confessed to the police about murdering the victim. police interrogated Hazra. Hazra said that the deceased Maulvi Vakil Ahmed was married. They had 5 daughters, one of whom was unmarried. Reportedly, the victim’s second wife had left him within 6 months of marriage.
Hajra informed the police that Ahmed wanted to marry for the third time while she had been planning to get her unmarried daughter married first. A heated argument ensued between the two, post which Hazra attacked him with a knife and chopped his private parts off. The police have arrested the accused, seized the murder weapon, and sent her to jail.
