In the last few days, multiple statements have been made by Aam Aadmi Party leaders against Dilip Bhan, a Kashmiri teacher, who had claimed that the Delhi Government delayed implementing the High Court’s ruling in favour of Kashmiri Migrant Teachers (KMT).
Bhan had claimed on behalf of the Government School Teachers Association (Migrant) Regd on March 28 that it was only after the judgement of the Supreme Court in their favour that the Delhi Government regularized their jobs as teachers.
On March 29, another press release from the same organization was out stating they did not know who Dilip Bhan was and praised Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government for supporting them throughout the case in High Court and Supreme Court. The contradictory statements from members of the Association raised several questions and, most importantly, on the existence of Dilip Bhan as he was categorically deemed as a “pawn of BJP” by AAP leaders.
Finding Dilip Bhan, does he exist?
Twitter user The Hawk Eye did some research and tried to find if the person was real or not. In a Twitter thread, he mentioned that AAP leader Atishi first claimed Dilip Bhan does not exist.
Where is this Dilip Bhan who released that first statement condemning AAP on behalf of KMT?
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) March 31, 2022
The ‘real’ asso said they don’t know “if he exists”.
Atishi said, “there is no Dilip Bhan”!
Later Bharadwaj said he fabricated st. (who dont even exist!??)
Some intriguing qu..
1/ pic.twitter.com/BwReFhYqix
The Association also mentioned in the March 29 press release that they condemned the allegedly fake press release on behalf of the Association by “some Dilip Bhan” and claimed they did not know any person by this name or any member of the Association by the name ‘Dilip Bhan’.
Interestingly, during a debate on Times Now, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed Dilip Bhan created a fabricated document. He said the Association that was contesting the case in the courts was Delhi Government Teachers Migrant Association, and Dilip Bhan was not part of the said Association. His statement was in contrast to Atishi’s statement, where she categorically denied the existence of Dilip Bhan.
#KashmirFilesFaceoff
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 29, 2022
RAPID FIRE: BJP vs AAP
AAP even raised questions about the existence of Dilip Bhan: @sambitswaraj
“Dilip Bhan created a fabricated document. He’s not a part of Delhi Govt Teachers Migrant Association”, says @Saurabh_MLAgk@thenewshour | @navikakumar pic.twitter.com/H6ERguwwpA
The Hawk Eye further shared screenshots of three different documents from 2008, 2009 and 2019 where a teacher named Dilip Kumar Bhan with employment ID 19941202 was mentioned in the list of Kashmiri Migrant Teachers.
Another catch here is now Bhardwaj changed the name of asso itself & its not a mistake. Listen to this clip carefully. He recited the (new) name of asso. very distinguishing & added “Dilip Bhan doesn’t belong to this asso & member of this asso don’t even know him”
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) March 31, 2022
3/ pic.twitter.com/J6kDrhYSB7
OpIndia’s investigation
OpIndia dug out more documents and available evidence with an aim to establish if Dilip Bhan exists or not, and here is what we found. During our investigation, we also came up with the documents of Kashmiri Migrant Teachers’ lists from 2019, 2008 and matched the school ID with the list available on Delhi Education Ministry’s website where his name was mentioned. The screenshots can be seen below.
We also confirmed if Bhan was one of the petitioners in the case filed in the Supreme Court. As per the details available on Supreme Court’s website for case number 028452/2018, Dilip Bhan was respondent number 196 in the petition filed by the Government of NCT Delhi.
We also checked if Bhan is a registered voter in Delhi. As per the Election Commission’s website, 61-years-old Dilip Bhan is a registered voter in Delhi as per the Voter’s list updated on January 1, 2022. The name of Bhan’s father and address matches the information available on the Supreme Court’s website about the respondents’ list in the case between Kashmiri Migrant Teachers and the Government of Delhi.
Dilip Bhan had a conversation with two channels, Times Now and Aaj Tak. On March 28, Bhan had talked to Times Now Group Editor Navika Kumar.
#KejriwalKashmirFilesRow
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 29, 2022
Services of Kashmiri migrant teachers were regularised by the high court: Dilip Bhan, Migrant Teachers Association counters Arvind Kejriwal’s claims@RichaSharmaB | @anchoramitaw pic.twitter.com/zv9F4TYdlE
On March 29, he had a conversation with Aaj Tak’s senior special correspondent Sunil Bhat. Aaj Tak’s thumbnail of the video had a person’s photo, which they claimed to be Dilip Bhan.
कश्मीरी पंडित शिक्षक संघ ने अरविंद केजरीवाल के दावे पर उठाए सवाल, बोले- अंतिम विकल्प तक डाली रुकावट #ReporterDiary #KashmiriPandits (@sunilJbhat) pic.twitter.com/xjEfJT6kaG
— AajTak (@aajtak) March 29, 2022
In both the conversations, he slammed Delhi Govt led by Arvind Kejriwal, for making false claims.
Dilip Bhan made no statement after Association’s press release
After the Association released the statement and claimed Bhan was not a member, he stopped making any appearances on TV channels or making any statement to a media or news agency. It is unclear what had happened during that period and if he was asked not to make any statements. We tried to find contact information of Bhan to hear his side of the story, but so far, we could not connect with him.
