Home Blog Page 5097

Nobody in the family saw his body hanging, don’t trust Mumbai police: Father of Sushant Singh Rajput argues in SC

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Nobody in the family saw his body hanging, don’t trust Mumbai police: Father of Sushant Singh Rajput argues in SC

Father of the late actor, Sushant Singh Rajput KK Singh, on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Sushant’s family never saw his body hanging and this creates suspicion. Contending that the family does not trust Mumbai Police with the investigation into the case of their late son, the family counsel of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput said on behalf of the actor’s father that Mumbai police was taking the investigations into a completely different direction.

“The larger picture is that my client has lost his son,” he said, adding that the Mumbai Police did not listen to Sushant’s father and “took the investigations into a completely different direction”.

“His daughter could enter after the body was reportedly brought down. Nobody in the family has seen his body hanging,” he argued.

Mumbai police have summoned everyone, “except the real suspects or accused”: Father of Sushant Singh Rajput to the Supreme Court

Mumbai police have summoned everyone, “except the real suspects or accused” in the case of his son’s death, said KK Singh’s counsel as he furthered that the mark seen on the actor’s neck could be of a belt. “It has to be she (Rhea) who controlled everything and she had to be investigated but Mumbai Police was doing something else”, argued Susuhant’s father through Vikas Singh.

Vikas Singh adds that a preliminary investigation can’t go beyond seven days. But Mumbai Police went on and on and didn’t even go after the real accused.

Singh contended that the consequence of Sushant’s “exploitation”, and the criminal breach of trust and cheating all happened at Patna. “So Patna police have the jurisdiction to register the FIR under Section 179 of the CrPC,” he submitted, adding that there has already been a delay of many days in the case, and if more time passes, evidence will be destroyed.

“I am from Patna and without my son I have no one to light my funeral pyre. This itself shows that Patna has jurisdiction”, said KK Singh.

When Rhea also wants a CBI probe, then the court should put its stamp of approval on the same: Family counsel of the late actor

Asking the apex court to ensure that the home quarantine rule is not applicable to CBI officers. the senior counsel representing Sushants father contended: “Maharashtra Govt changes rules on Aug 3, a day after Bihar SP Vinay Tiwari was quarantined forcibly. It was to disable the investigation.” saying this Vikas Singh argued before the apex court that when Rhea also wants a CBI probe, then the court should put its stamp of approval on the same.

Meanwhile, the Supreme court asked Rhea Chakraborty’s counsel whether it wants CBI to investigate or not? To this Rhea’s lawyer said: “I want a fair investigation. I have a strong disquiet the manner in which Bihar made that recommendation and CBI took over. This matter must go to Mumbai first. And if the CBI has to come in, it could come later”.

Asking all the parties to submit arguments in writing on Thursday, the Supreme Court has reserved the order in the case.

Rhea’s flip flop on CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput’s case

It is pertinent to note here that Sushant Singh’s ex-girlfriend, Rhea who now seems to be flustered with her name appearing in the inquiry, has changed her stance on her demand for a CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput’s case.

The Bollywood entertainer, who had a month after Sushant’s death, batted for the investigative agency to intervene, has now been attributing adjectives like “illegal”, “against the notion of Federalism” and discriminatory to the agency. She recently, also invoked the upcoming Bihar elections insinuating that the death case of Sushant was being isolated and blown out of proportion since the death of Sushant Singh, who hailed from Bihar, unfortunately, occurred just in wake of elections in Bihar.

Meerut Police initiates action against a social media user for threatening activist and writer Nidhi Bahuguna

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Meerut Police initiates action against a social media user for threatening activist and writer Nidhi Bahuguna

The Meerut Police have initiated action against a social media user who had dished out a veiled threat to Social Media activist and Freelance author Nidhi Bahuguna on Twitter.

The official Twitter account of the Meerut Police took cognisance of the threat issued by the social media user and forwarded it to the cyber cell for necessary action against the accused.

The threat was issued by a user named ‘Hamza’ after Nidhi responded to ‘human rights activist’ Aakar Patel’s highly provocative tweet, urging Muslims to demand for reserved seats or separate electorates. Patel’s incendiary tweet exhorting Muslims in India to demand proportional representation in the Parliament and elected bodies elicited a prompt reply from Nidhi Bahugana, highlighting how her family, who originally hailed from Sialkot before the partition, were not granted any safety or electoral rolls in the Muslim majority Pakistan.

”My family was forced to migrate from Sialkot to meerut post partition. The Muslims in meerut stayed on in their ancestral homes. My family was not given any safety or separate electoral rolls by a Muslim majority in pak,” Nidhi tweeted.

screenshot of Twitter conversation when Hamza issued threats to Nidhi Bahuguna

However, Nidhi’s tweet irked Hamza so much so that he proceeded to issue a threat to her on Twitter. Responding on Nidhi’s tweet, the social media user said that he is from Hapur road on Meerut and menacingly sought her address from her, apparently to determine “who has more courage”.

After a social media user tagged Meerut Police on the thread where Hamza had issued a threat against Nidhi, the Meerut Police shot back, saying that the cyber cell has been directed to initiate necessary action.

However, spooked by police intervention, the social media user Hamza withdrew his tweet and deactivated his social media account.

Hamza has deactivated his Twitter after police intervention

Nidhi Bahuguna’s account of Meerut riots

Earlier last year, when communal tensions flared up in Delhi Hauz Qazi after a desecration of temple in the neighbourhood, Nidhi Bahuguna had written an article on OpIndia, recounting her horrific ordeal during the riots in Meerut.

In her article, Bahuguna narrated that communal flare-ups were a between Hindus and Muslims was a common occurrence in the city of Meerut during the tumultuous years of 70s and 80s. Bahuguna chillingly describes the violent riots in 1986-87 when the piercing chants of “Allahu Akbar” reverberated across the town as the rampaging Muslim mob went about decimating everything that came on their way.

“It was early morning in Shastri Nagar, a hindu majority middle class colony. On an early morning in the summer of 1987, far away slogans of Allahu Akbar suddenly filled the air and dark black cloud of smoke appeared on the horizon. Before we could know what the matter was, suddenly lots of neighbours living on the outskirts of Shastri Nagar (a Hindu majority colony) next to Hapur Road (a Muslim majority area) began running in on foot, on scooters, on cycles. They said a muslim mob had attacked them and they were throwing burning tyres into their homes. They also said a petrol pump had been burnt on Hapur road,” Nidhi had written in her article on OpIndia.

‘With the strength of your experience, our country will win this battle,’ PM Modi holds meeting with CM of ten states with maximum Covid-19 cases

OpIndia Staff
-
0
‘With the strength of your experience, our country will win this battle,’ PM Modi holds meeting with CM of ten states with maximum Covid-19 cases

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with Chief Ministers of ten states that contribute to 80% of the cases and 82% of the deaths associated with Covid-19. The Chief Ministers of Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and West Bengal were present at the meeting with PM Modi via video conferencing.

80 percent of the cases from 10 states

During the meeting, PM Modi said, “Today 80% of the country’s active cases are from these 10 states that is why their role is crucial in the fight against Corona. The number of active cases has exceeded 6 lakh, and most of them are from these ten states.” He added that there is a need to increase testing in the states where the testing rate is low, but the positivity rate is high. “Bihar, UP, West Bengal, Gujarat and Telangana need to increase testing rate,” he said.

States can learn from each other

PM Modi said that it is essential to monitor the ground reality of the states continuously. “I am confident that with the strength of your experience, the country will win this battle, and there will be a new beginning.” He pointed out that containment, contact tracing and surveillance are the most effective weapon against coronavirus at present.

He quoted experts and said that if a person is diagnosed within 72 hours, then it gets easier to control the spread. He said that those who came in contact with an infected person should be traced, tested and quarantined as required within 72 hours. PM Modi emphasised on the fact that the daily number of tests has reached seven lakh, and it is increasing as needed.

PM Modi said that the percentage of active cases has decreased and the recovery rate has increased. That means the steps India is taking to fight the virus is effective. Increased recovery rate is helping in building trust and confidence among people. He said that by sharing information about the ground reality, it becomes easier to understand if we are moving in the right direction or not. It is essential to understand what these states with the highest number of cases are doing to manage the cases so that states can learn from each other and implement possible steps to curb the virus spread.

Lower fatality rate

PM Modi said that India has a comparatively lower fatality rate than other countries. While the number of cases has increased in the country, India has been able to control the fatality rate. At the moment it is less than 2%, but the next target should be to bring the fatality rate below 1%. He added that the coming three months often see a spike in seasonal diseases and India has to fight those diseases along with Covid-19.

Taking precautions is essential

While emphasising on testing and contact tracing, PM Modi said that it is visible that everyone is facing problems amid coronavirus pandemic. There is pressure on the hospitals, medical staff, and frontline warriors. Still, it is essential to take all the precautions to keep everyone around us safe. Pm Modi added that Arogya Setu app is also helping in keeping a check on the spread of the virus. Better management at hospitals and increased number of ICU beds are some of the positive signs that were discussed during the meeting.

The curious case of a ‘Hindi Supremacist’ Twitter account, its Islamist origins and links to widely followed Islamist accounts on the platform

K Bhattacharjee
-
0
The curious case of a ‘Hindi Supremacist’ Twitter account, its Islamist origins and links to widely followed Islamist accounts on the platform

A rather intriguing account has attracted considerable attention on micro-blogging site Twitter in the past few days. The account, which tweets under the username @shubhamrss01, has been making incendiary comments directed clearly to foment discord between North and South India. Apart from that, the account has also been making derogatory comments on women.

The pet issue that the account appears to have picked up is ‘Hindi imposition’. The account spreads hatred against South Indians and castigates them for their supposed preference for English over Hindi. It has also spread canards claiming that anyone who does not know Hindi is not a ‘true Indian’. Quite clearly, the account appears to fit into the stereotypical image of North Indians that a certain section of Dravidian political accounts want Tamilians to have.

Twitter account of ‘Shubham Tripathi’ which has Indian flag and ‘RSS’ in its name and handle

In another tweet that has gained a lot of retweets on the social media platform, the account said that South Indians who refuse to learn Hindi should be expelled from the country and that he is confident that the Modi Sarkar will do so. In the same thread, he also called South Indians ‘monkeys’.

Source: Twitter

The person in the display picture of the account does not appear to be ‘Shubham Tripathi’. Instead, he appears to have been someone who went around commenting on the pictures and posts of female celebrities. One of his comments may have gone viral due to which he became a ‘meme’. In any case, it is pretty evident that it is a fake account.

For instance, @shubhamrss01 was not the original username of the account. The username that the account used prior to that is @dranjalimehta1 and on that account, the said person was anything but a ‘Modi Bhakt’. That it was the previous username of the same account is evident from the fact that when one search for the @dranjalimehta1 account on Twitter, the account that is thrown up is @shubhamrss01.

Source: Twitter screenshot

The tweets that the account had made under the female username is unfortunately not available. However, some that have been accessed by Twitter user @Vedic_Revival show that the account regularly tweeted misinformation about developments on the border with China as well as Pakistan. It was also against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

There is further incontrovertible evidence that the previous username of the account @shubhamrss01 was @DrAnjaliMehta1. We found that tweets from both these usernames have been archived on archive.org. In the archived web pages, we looked for the ‘data user id’ of both these usernames by viewing the page source of the archived pages.

There we discovered that both these usernames share the same numeric id which is unique and does not change even when an account changes its username. The numeric id for both these usernames is 1098606416259108875.

The unique numeric id proves that @shubhamrss01 is a fake account

It is also pertinent to note that the account @shubhamrss01 alias @DrAnjaliMehta1 was formed in February 2019. He has since then changed his display picture to an image of Lord Ganesha and is no longer using the image of the man. As we know, February 2019 was the month of the Pulwama Terror Attack and the Balakot Airstrikes that followed it.

‘Shubham Tripathi’ joined Twitter in February 2019

In its aftermath, numerous Pakistani ISI backed handles were created in order to fuel disinformation campaign in India and undermine the truth of what happened. It appears entirely plausible that before the @dranjalimehta1 username, the account tweeted under some completely different username. However, it appears relatively certain that the handle is geared towards spreading propaganda that could undermine India’s security.

There appears to be further evidence of the fact that the account was created with the sole purpose of spreading propaganda against India. The account appears to have gotten popular after a screenshot of its apparent conversation with an Israeli was shared by an Islamist on Twitter. The Islamist concerned was one of the accounts which was spearheading an effort to punish Hindus living in the Middle East under frivolous charges.

Also, as was discovered by user @Vedic_Revival, both the accounts in the screenshot probably share a single phone number that ends with the number 47. Thus, it could very well be that both accounts share the same phone number, operated by the same individual. This has led to speculation that the whole conversation was choreographed to paint Indians in poor light. Consequently, with regards to who choreographed it, it is only natural to suspect the account that shared the conversation first.

Screenshot which shows both accounts possibly having same number.

There is more evidence that the account is run by an Islamist. For instance, at one point of time, the Twitter bio of Shubham Tripathi claimed that he was an employee at the Lucknow branch of the Bank of Baroda. Therefore, naturally, when his obnoxious tweets went viral on the social media platform, people tagged the Twitter account of Bank of Baroda in their tweets and demanded action.

Things escalated to a point where the Bank of Baroda had to clarify that Twitter account of Shubham Tripathi did not belong to any of its staff. It is important to note that the Islamist behind the account attempted to target the Lucknow branch of the Bank of Baroda. It is intriguing certainly because not too long ago, one social media user who called himself ‘Afsaar bhai‘ said that ‘protests’ along the lines of the George Floyd riots in the United States should be carried out in India.

And ‘Afsaar bhai’ also presented himself as an employee at the Lucknow branch of the Bank of Baroda. Netizens had urged stringent action against the culprit and the Bank of Baroda had promised to investigate the matter and take stringent action. And now, the same branch appears to be the target of an Islamist running a fake account.

Thus, quite clearly, a nefarious attempt appears to be underway to fan communal tensions in the country and create divisions within the country on the basis of regional divides. There is enough evidence to suggest that the account is being run by an Islamist in order to fuel strife within India. The manner in which the account has gained such traction within such a short period of time raises eyebrows as well.

Furthermore, as to the possible identity of the individual(s) running the account, the primary suspect should naturally be the Islamist account that made it so popular by sharing the screenshot of an obviously choreographed conversation. It is also important to note that the same Islamist account was part of a collective effort to jeopardise the safety and security of Hindus living in the Middle East.

Thus, it is of paramount importance that the Indian intelligence agencies take note of such entities that appear to be working over time to undermine the security and integrity of India and fan communal tensions on the basis of region. There appears to be a nexus that is working to fan such sentiments, which requires urgent intervention.

‘Where do you want me to move on? I am in abyss,’ Rajdeep Sardesai trolled on social media after Asaduddin Owaisi’s Bhoomi Pujan meltdown

OpIndia Staff
-
0
‘Where do you want me to move on? I am in abyss,’ Rajdeep Sardesai trolled on social media after Asaduddin Owaisi’s Bhoomi Pujan meltdown

Propagandist-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai appears to have greatly unpopular even among his cultivated fan base lately. After a clip of his interview with AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi went viral on social media, he was trolled by Islamists and others for apparently toeing the government line. In the clip that went viral, the leader from Hyderabad was having a meltdown on live TV a day before the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan on the 5th of August.

The clip carried Asaduddin Owaisi’s answer to a question Rajdeep Sardesai asked during the interview but conveniently did not include the question itself. The question was regarding whether it was time for both Hindus and Muslims to look ahead into the future “rather than live by the antagonism of the past” and for the two communities to find a new compact.

Asaduddin Owaisi, however, twisted the question out of context and took it to mean that he was being asked by Rajdeep Sardesai to ‘move on’. Then, the Muslim leader had a terrible meltdown and asked whether the country should move on from the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the 1984 Sikh Genocide by the Congress party and the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.

“Rajdeep, where do you want me to move on? I am in abyss,” Asaduddin Owaisi thundered. He also slammed the ‘secular parties’ for their apparent silence on the whole matter and during the interview, he also called out liberals like Rajdeep Sardesai for apparently not doing enough to prevent the domination of the Hindutva ideology.

After the clip went viral, users on social media condemned Rajdeep Sardesai and the majority community of India for being ‘majoritarian supremacist’. The India Today anchor was also condemned for asking Asaduddin Owaisi to speak out on the Islamic regimes of Saudi Arabia and Iran, to which the latter took great objection to on account of him being an Indian Muslim.

Responding to these remarks, Rajdeep Sardesai conceded that the question regarding Islamic countries was framed poorly but maintained that the Hyderabad leader is responsible for his party’s minority politics. “We must reject majoritarianism and minorityism,” he said. However, Islamists and the secular-liberal camp did not take kindly to his words.

Rajdeep Sardesai was slammed for his line of questioning as well as his comment regarding minorityism. Alleged health journalist Vidya Krishnan accused him of ‘bullying’ Owaisi to feel good about his journalism and claimed that his journalism only holds Muslims accountable. She also said that it was ‘incredible’ that he refused to apologise.

Another individual used the comments made by the India Today anchor to claim that ‘Liberals are ass of Sanghis’. We are not quite sure what that means.

Yet another individual commented that Rajdeep Sardesai has ‘absolute dung’ for brains.

Rajdeep Sardesai was also accused of being a ‘pimp’ of the government.

Others appeared to be have a meltdown at par with Owaisi and claimed that India is being ruled by a mass murderer and Uttar Pradesh is ruled by an ‘extremist monk’.

Rajdeep Sardesai was also told that he should not ‘target’ parties such as AIMIM and Akalis and instead, he should focus his attention on BJP, Shiv Sena and the RSS which play ‘majoritarian politics’.

A lot of the responses indicate that people were of the opinion that such a thing called ‘minorityism’ does not exist. While we cannot be certain what precisely Rajdeep Sardesai possibly meant by his words, in all probability, he was referring to the manner in which AIMIM has leaders that engage in dangerous inflammatory rhetoric for which they somehow never face any action from the party.

For instance, Akbaruddin Owaisi, the brother of the AIMIM supremo, once openly threatened Hindus and said that if Police was lifted across the country for 15 minutes, then Muslims would show Hindus who the boss is. More recently, senior AIMIM leader Waris Pathan had said during the CAA protests that 15 crore Muslims will dominate 100 crore Hindus and told the Hindu community to “imagine what we can do to you”. No action appears to have been taken against him either.

Uttar Pradesh: Sultanpur police arrest one Sajid who threatened to exterminate Hindus and bomb temples

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Uttar Pradesh: Sultanpur police arrest one Sajid who threatened to exterminate Hindus and bomb temples

On Monday, the Sultanpur police had arrested one Sajid for giving rape threats and sharing violent remarks on Facebook against the Hindu community.

Sajid, Arshad wants to rape ‘minor’ Hindu girls

While sharing screenshots of the objectionable comments made by Sajid and a man named Arshad, a Twitter user complained, “Arshad and Sajid Ali who happen to be the residents of Sultanpur have threatened to exterminate the Hindus and bomb the temples. When a man named Suraj Pandey objected to the communal remarks, the duo threatened to rape his minor sister. Please take action against them.”

Arshad and Sajid were seen threatening Sooraj that they will make Hindus beg for survival in the area and will rape his minor sister.

Screenshot of the abusive comments, via Twitter
Screenshot of the abusive comments, via Twitter

NCIB took cognisance, one accused arrested by Sultanpur police

Following a complaint by a Twitter user, the National Crime Investigation Bureau of Uttar Pradesh took cognisance of the matter and directed the Sultanpur police to take necessary action in this regard.

The Sultanpur police then informed that the accused Sajid has been arrested and have been sent to the district prison. In a reply to the tweet by NCIB, the Sultanpur police stated that the accused is a resident of Sarkandedih in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The tweet further informed that Sajid was booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 295A (deliberate attempt to outrage religious feelings), 504 (provocation), 506 (criminal intimidation), Section 67 (publishing sexually explicit content electronically) of the Information Technology Act.

Poet and lyricist Rahat Indori dies of coronavirus

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Poet and lyricist Rahat Indori dies of coronavirus

Poet and lyricist Rahat Indori died of coronavirus today. He had been admitted to Aurobindo Hospital earlier today after testing positive for Chinese virus.

Earlier in the day he had taken to Twitter to inform of himself being tested positive for coronavirus.

He had urged everyone to pray for his early recovery.

Ashok Gehlot reportedly offers to resign from the post of Rajasthan CM after Sachin Pilot’s return to Congress: Reports

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Ashok Gehlot reportedly offers to resign from the post of Rajasthan CM after Sachin Pilot’s return to Congress: Reports

According to the sources quoted by Republic TV, the political crisis in Rajasthan has taken a shocking turn as the chief minister Ashok Gehlot has offered to resign. This development comes a day after Sachin Pilot’s return to the Congress party.

However, this is in contrast to what Gehlot had earlier claimed. While talking to the reporters in Jaisalmer, Gehlot had hinted that he is willing to forgive Sachin Pilot and the 18 rebel MLAs if the party’s high command decides the same.

On Tuesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot informed that a 3-member committee has been constituted by the Congress party to resolve grievances with Sachin Pilot. He claimed that peace and brotherhood would always remain in the grand old party. Gehlot further accused the BJP of destabilising the government and reiterated that he has the support of all Congress MLAs who were earlier believed to have deserted him.

Sachin Pilot returns to Congress fold

The political turmoil in Rajasthan has seemingly seems to have come to an end with senior leader of the Congress party, Sachin Pilot, bending the knee before the Chief Minister of the state Ashok Gehlot. The suspended Deputy CM accepted Gehlot as his leader.

The Congress party had said in a statement earlier, “Sachin Pilot has met former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and expressed his grievances in detail. They have had a frank, open and conclusive discussion. Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan.”

Ashok Gehlot had lashed out at Sachin Pilot

Ashok Gehlot had lashed out at Sachin Pilot and called him “nikamma and nakaara (useless)”. “Rajasthan is the only state in the country where no demands were raised from any quarter to change the pradesh Congress committee president in the last seven years. We knew that no work is happening. We knew he is nikamma and nakaara (useless). We still didn’t question him keeping the party interest in mind,” Gehlot told the media.

Gehlot had also claimed that he was not in ‘talking terms’ with the Deputy Chief Minister of the state Sachin Pilot. He stated that Pilot was just playing the victim card over Special Operation Group (SOG) notice to him. On July 14, the Congress party had sacked the young Turk as Rajasthan state Congress chief and removed him from the post of Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The party had alleged that the leader had gone rogue and had conspired with BJP to destabilise the government in Rajasthan

Netizens demand arrest of SP MLA Abu Azmi after he flouts social distancing guidelines, cuts birthday cake with a sword

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Netizens demand arrest of SP MLA Abu Azmi after he flouts social distancing guidelines, cuts birthday cake with a sword

In a viral video, Samajwadi party leader Abu Asim Azmi was seen flouting social distancing guidelines, amidst the Coronavirus lockdown in Mumbai. He was spotted amidst a huge gathering of people who had come to celebrate his birthday. In the same event, he was seen brandishing a sword in violation of the law. In another bizarre video, the said politician was seen sitting on a sofa and slicing a cake with a sword, instead of a knife.

Netizens demand action against Abu Asim Azmi

However, an MLA celebrating his birthday flouting social distancing norms and using a sword did not go down well with social media users. While tagging the Mumbai police, a Twitter user asked whether any strict action would be taken against him.

Another Twitter user, Laxminarrayan Shetty, rebuked the Samajwadi Party MLA and said, “(He) seems to have forgotten that he lives in India and not some banana republic! What sort of a politician who’s a current MLA uses a sword to cut his birthday cake?” He further tagged Mumbai Police and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and demanded ‘punitive action’ against Azmi.

A Twitter user, Binu Varghese said that the actions of Azmi violate the Arms Act and several Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He inquired, “Will the Police take some action against him as done with common citizens in similar incidents ?”

Man arrested for cutting 25 cakes with a sword

Last month, the Mumbai police had arrested a 25-year-old man named Haris Khan after a video of him cutting 25 birthday cakes with a sword went viral on social media. The cops had also booked 30 others for taking part in the celebrations without wearing masks or adhering to social distancing guidelines, following a complaint by activist Mohsin Shaikh. Assistant Police Inspector (Bandra) Hemant Phad informed that appropriate action would be taken against the accused and those who attended the event. He also stated the sword that was used to cut the cakes had been recovered by the police.

PTI spreads another fake news, misquotes PM Modi on coronavirus cases in India

OpIndia Staff
-
0
PTI spreads another fake news, misquotes PM Modi on coronavirus cases in India

News agency Press Trust of India (PTI) today misquoted Prime Minister Modi on the percentage of active Chinese coronavirus cases in India. Prime Minister Modi while interacting with the Chief Ministers of ten states of India said that in past few weeks, the percentage of active coronavirus cases in India has been coming down.

Prime Minister Modi said that the percentage of active cases of coronavirus cases in India has come down and the recovery rate has come up. “That means, our efforts have been fruitful,” PM Modi said. He added that this has added ray of hope and made us confident that things will get better soon.

However, news agency PTI again misquoted him and reported that PM Modi said that the number of active cases of COVID-19 in India have come down.

PTI misquotes PM Modi

This information is not only incorrect in sense that it misquotes PM Modi but it is also misleading because the absolute number of active cases of coronavirus in India is increasing. However, since the recovery rate has also gone up, the daily active cases curve has slightly taken a curve, thereby showing a decrease in the percentage of active coronavirus cases.

Active coronavirus cases in India

The absolute number of active cases of coronavirus have been increasing at a decreasing rate since past few days. That means, while the total new cases are also rising, so are the recoveries.

Slight bend in the daily total of active cases in India (graph courtesy: worldometers.info)

As per the details shared by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), one can notice a consistent decline in the total percentage of active cases.

Graph of recovery rate and active cases rate since June 15 (graph courtesy: PIB)

As can be seen above, the recovery rate is currently at almost 70%, which means almost 70% of total Chinese coronavirus patients in India have recovered. The same was about 51% on June 15. While India has still not peaked (where daily recoveries are more than daily new active cases consistently), the above graph shows that India is well on its path to recovery.

Hence, even though number of active cases is rising consistently, the percentage of active cases in India is seeing a decline.

PTI, the habitual fake news spreader

Earlier in June, PTI interviewed Chinese ambassador Sun Weidong wherein he blamed India for the clash between the two countries at Galwan Valley. PTI received flak over the fact that its journalist did not bother to counter-question the Chinese ambassador on his dubious claims. People had also pointed out that the ‘interview’ came across as a press release by the Chinese Communist Party rather than a genuine interview.

During Delhi assembly elections held earlier this year, the news agency had completely misreported the share of candidates with criminal records from various parties. While AAP had 51% candidates facing serious criminal cases, PTI reported it as only 25%, misquoting a report by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Similarly, they had also changed the numbers for BJP and Congress.

Similarly, in July last year, PTI had published a report claiming that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in parliament that demonetisation has no affect on economy. The finance minister herself had to clarify that she didn’t made any such statement, after several media houses carried the misleading report.

Update: PTI has now deleted its original tweet and tweeted a more accurate tweet on quote of PM Modi.

However, PTI has not offered any apology for the same.

1...5,0965,0975,098...7,606Page 5,097 of 7,606