On 3rd January, Mumbai Mirror in its report titled “SAMBHAJI BHIDE AND MILIND EKBOTE: THE TWO WHO BROUGHT MUMBAI TO A HALT” named and shamed Sambhaji Bhide, an ardent follower of Maratha warrior king Shivaji Maharaj and his son Sambhaji Maharaj and Milind Ekbote, a BJP leader, accusing them of “desecrated the samadhi of a Dalit icon” near Pune on December 29, sparking statewide violence which even reached parts of Gujarat.
However, in the ongoing investigation, where police is examining audio and video clips, no clinching evidence pinning the two has been found. The police has got around 600 video and audio clips to examine.
Over and above that, Mirror reported that the samadhi of a Dalit icon was desecrated by the duo. However, no such evidence could be found. As as per the conflincting The Indian Express report, a board was placed near the samadhi on the night on 28th December, but the same was found removed on the morning of 29th December, with part of the structure damaged. While the Dalits blamed the Marathas for removing the board, no witnesses have come forward yet.
Twitter users, too, reacted to this contradiction in reporting and blame game played by media without proper evidence.
Sold out Journalism pic.twitter.com/Ilm77rcdAl
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) January 6, 2018
Users also mocked Mirror report for not questioning Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani and JNU student Umar Khalid who allegedly instigated the crowd to take the fight to streets.
Left: The two who brought city to halt and caused a guy to be murdered just because he was wearing a t-shirt with picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Right: The benefits of controlling narrative pic.twitter.com/ZsdVIh9IUd— Rahul Roushan (@rahulroushan) January 5, 2018
Bhide, however, has maintained he is innocent and the entire episode is a political conspiracy
