Year 2024 has come to an end and we enter year 2025. While the year may change, commitment of OpIndia to bring forward the truth and highlight important issues won’t change. To shine a light on the important issues in Indian society, truth that is hidden, covered and ignored at the ground level, that is what OpIndia does, and will continue to do.
Like every year, in the year 2024 OpIndia published several reports and brought the reality to its viewers through its ground reports. The impact of our team’s ground reports has also been tremendous and people have also loved them abundantly.
Today in this special report, we will take a look at some of the ground reports from the year 2024 that were ignored by the mainstream media. OpIndia did many ground reports during the year, but here we will discuss some of the reports that had a positive impact.
OpIndia Impact: Action against Mufti Salman Azhari for calling Hindus ‘dogs’
On 31st January 2024, a program of the Muslim community was organized in the grounds of Narsingh Vidya Mandir near Junagadh Court, in which Mufti Salman Azhari gave an inflammatory and provocative speech. The video of which went viral on social media. Even after the video of the speech went viral, the media did not even raise a single question on Azhari’s inflammatory speech. However, on 1st February, OpIndia published an exclusive report and also spoke to the police about the follow up action. Following OpIndia’s exclusive report, on 2nd February, Junagadh Police registered an FIR against Azhari and the two organizers of the program.
After the FIR, Gujarat ATS reached Mumbai and brought Azhari to Gujarat. After this, several cases were registered against him in Gujarat regarding the speeches he gave at various places. However, the Supreme Court finally granted him bail. This entire process happened only after an exclusive report by OpIndia.
It should be noted that in the viral video, Salman Azhari was heard saying, “Abhi toh Karbala ka aakhiri maidan baki hai… kuch der ki khamoshi hai, phir shoor aayega… aaj kutton ka wakt hai, kal hamara daur aayega.”
OpIndia Impact: Bulldozer action against illegal shrine near Ranjitsagar Dam in Jamnagar
On May 12, 2024, OpIndia reported in a detailed exclusive report that an illegal Dargah has been constructed near the famous Ranjitsagar Dam in Jamnagar. Written orders were also given in 2022 to remove this illegal encroachment, but despite this, the illegal structure stayed there. Local Hindu activists, in a conversation with OpIndia, said that the action was being delayed due to the system not paying attention.
However, OpIndia contacted the District Collector, Mamlatdar and others, who assured that the matter would be taken up afresh and whatever was required would be done. After OpIndia’s report, action was finally taken in this matter on June 19, 2024 and the dargah near Ranjitsagar Dam was razed to the ground. This information was given by the Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghvi himself.
OpIndia Impact: Resolution passed to declare Girnar a ‘veg zone’
Before Shivratri, a video of non-veg at Datta Chowk in Bhavnath Taleti, Girnar, went viral. The major Hindu festival was approaching and after such a video surfaced, there was anger among the saints. At that time, OpIndia followed the issue on the ground and became the voice of the saints of Bhavnath. Mahadev Bharati Bhapu, the mahant of Bharati Ashram, which holds an important place among many ashrams in Taleti, expressed the feelings of all the saints through OpIndia and demanded that Bhavnath Taleti be declared a ‘Veg Zone’.
After the ground report of OpIndia, action was taken to pass a resolution to declare Bhavnath Taleti as a veg zone. After which the resolution was passed in the Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation. However, such a resolution was tabled once before, but for some reason it could not be passed. In such a situation, after the incident, due to the impact of the report given by OpIndia, the resolution was once again passed in the Standing Committee and action was also taken. It is worth noting that this entire incident is of March 2024.
Private institution suspends teacher but Islamist portal calls him ‘government employee’
The portal ‘Jamawat’, which has often been in controversy for spreading fake news, published a report on April 1, 2024, claiming that a teacher who questioned Bharuch MP Mansukh Vasava about the water problem has been suspended from his job. The report described the person as a ‘government official’ and attempted to blame the government.
A young man from Mathasar village of Dediapada, Bharji Vasava, made a video saying that there was no drinking water in the village and posted it on social media. After this video went viral, local MP and BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha elections, Mansukh Vasava, reached the village. Meanwhile, another video of a conversation between him and this young man also surfaced. This video also went viral.
After investigating the matter in depth, OpIndia reached out to Dr. K.R. Shroff Foundation. The organization’s zonal head Govindbhai discussed the matter with us and provided detailed information and clarified the situation. He clearly stated that they are a private organization and action has been taken against any person who goes against their rules, and that neither the government nor the education department has any say in the matter.
OpIndia’s series of on-the-ground reports during the action against left-wing ‘journalist’ Mahesh Langa
In October 2024, Mahesh Langa, a leftist ‘journalist’ of ‘The Hindu’ organisation, was arrested in the GST scam. OpIndia kept a close eye on all the proceedings from the arrest onward and informed the readers about Langa’s activities. The first FIR was registered against him in the GST scam case. After which, a second FIR was also registered against Langa on charges of passing sensitive information to opposition parties and industry groups. OpIndia also published several reports with all the information in this matter.
After which, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch also registered a third FIR against Mahesh Langa on October 29, 2024. He was accused of extorting ₹28 lakh from a businessman and threatening him by claiming that he had political influence. This crime was registered after a complaint from a businessman running an advertising company in Ahmedabad. OpIndia obtained a copy of the FIR and contacted the Ahmedabad Crime Branch and the complainant and also published a ground report. In which detailed information was given about the allegations made against Mahesh Langa.
Kanhaiyalal-like case in Bhavnagar, attack on Hindu tailor by Sahil-Shaukat
An attack on a Hindu man was reported in Kumbharwada, Bhavnagar. The victim was associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu organizations, while the accused were identified as Sahil, Shaukat and Munna. The victim said that he was attacked over a fight over playing Hanuman Chalisa. Rajendrabhai Chauhan, a tailor living in Kumbharwada, had also filed an FIR regarding the incident at the Bortala police station.
The entire incident took place on February 1, 2024. In the complaint, he said that on February 1, around 7 pm, while he was working at his shop, Sahil Padarshi and Shaukat Mankad, who lived next door, arrived there and Sahil had an iron pipe in his hand. Upon arriving at the shop, Sahil asked, “Why have you filed a complaint against my grandfather Bilalbhai?” He then threw an iron pipe at Chauhan, hitting him in the head above his right ear, causing him to bleed.
OpIndia contacted the victim, Rajendrabhai, to get more information about the matter. He said that the attack was carried out on the pretext of a fight over playing Hanuman Chalisa. He told us, “I keep playing Hanuman Chalisa in my shop, over which we had a fight with the accused 6-7 months ago. Once, when Hanuman Chalisa was playing, he came and turned off the tape himself.”
Public murder of a Hindu man in Prantij and OpIndia’s ground report
On February 14, 2024, a Muslim mob attacked a Hindu family in Prantij, Sabarkantha district and killed a person. In this fight over a money transaction, the mob entered the Hindu area and created a ruckus. The person who intervened was dragged away by the mob and killed. The police registered an FIR against a total of 17 people in this case. After this incident, OpIndia reached out to the victim’s family and tried to get detailed information about the entire incident.
Subhashbhai, the younger brother of the deceased Rajubhai Bhoi, spoke to OpIndia. While talking about the incident, he said, “Our brother had nothing to do with the incident. The man who lives next door to us had a fight with some people from the local Muslim community over financial transactions. They had a fight a week ago too. After that, on February 14 too, they had a fight in the market and the accused beat up our neighbor. After that, they also came home and created a ruckus.
Regarding the murder of his brother, Subhash further said, “When those people were beating up the neighbor, my elder brother only said, “What are you doing beating him?” As soon as my brother said this, the mob got agitated and rushed to kill my brother with swords, pipes and hockey sticks. There were 100-200 of them and they dragged my brother away. After taking him about 100 feet away from the house, they beat him indiscriminately. They strangled my brother and hit him with a pipe to death.” In addition, the family said that stones were also pelted on the family while they were going to collect the body.
Rafiq Memon attacks Hindu journalist, also uses casteist slurs
Rafiq Memon beating a Hindu youth with a stick after using caste-based words came to light from Naswadi, Chhota Udepur. The victim youth belonged to a Hindu tribal community and worked in a private news company and supported his family by doing farm labor as well. The youth said that Rafiq Memon, the head of Naswadi, had beaten him with a stick in public after using casteist slurs. The victim filed a case in this matter at the Naswadi police station, and the police registered a case in the matter.
According to the primary information of the incident, an acquaintance of the victim youth Alkesh Tadvi had a dispute with the accused Rafiq Memon over something. After the scuffle, the matter reached a settlement. During this, it was decided to settle the matter in writing between the two parties, and the victim youth Alkesh also signed the settlement agreement. After both parties reached a settlement, Alkesh and his acquaintance left with the settlement agreement. However, after leaving the place, Alkesh was reading the settlement agreement when accused Rafiq Memon beat him up.
Alkesh told OpIndia, “After snatching the settlement agreement, Rafiq used casteist slurs against me. He said, ‘Have you become a big journalist? You don’t know how to read or write and you drive around with a press ID card.’ He started beating me up. During this, some of my acquaintances came running and saved me from Rafiq.”
Alkesh told OpIndia that the accused Rafiq has several previous cases of atrocities registered against him.
In the Gujarat University hostel controversy, only OpIndia presented the truth with evidence
On March 17, 2024, several videos of Gujarat University went viral on social media and in mainstream media. All the videos were saying the same thing that local students attacked foreign Muslim students because the foreign students were offering Namaaz. However, no media outlet had reached the root cause behind this incident. Media outlets across the country had started blaming local students. The alleged fact checker Mohammad Zubair had also targeted local students regarding this incident. Only local students were being blamed from all sides. However, only OpIndia tried to get to the root of the incident and recorded the video.
In that video, it could be seen that some foreign students were offering prayers in public in a block in the Gujarat University Boys Hostel. Meanwhile, some other youths go there to find out the reason why prayers are being offered in public like this. The youths ask the security guard there why prayers are being offered in public like this. So the guard says that these people always pray here. The youths say that there are madrasas, mosques, etc for prayers. After that, a foreign Muslim student who was offering prayers gets up and slaps the Hindu youth several times and abuses him. And thus begins the brawl between two groups in the hostel. The Islamists had shared many videos. But not a single person shared the video of how this brawl started. Which was done only by OpIndia.
Thus, during the year 2024, OpIndia had done several ground reports. Out of which, we have discussed the main and important reports as above. The mainstream media did not shed light on a single such incident. Only OpIndia reached the ground level and found the truth and presented it to the society. Our reports were also helpful in further legal action in many places. Now, as 2025 begins, OpIndia will remain steadfast and unwavering on its commitment and in the same way, it will make efforts to bring the truth that has been buried in the corner firmly to the society.