The Delhi police have apprehended an accused named Shahnawaz involved in the gruesome murder of 20-year-old Dilbar Singh Negi on February 24 during the Delhi Anti-Hindu riots. His mutilated body was later discovered at Anil Sweet House in Brijpuri on February 26.
Delhi Police: Crime Branch has arrested an accused Shahnawaz, in the murder/riot case of Gokulpuri which was registered after the body of one Dilbar Negi was found in mutilated condition in Anil Sweet House, Brijpuri on 26th February. #DelhiViolencepic.twitter.com/p07SjSUpZS
Dilbar Singh Negi was burnt alive by a Muslim mob of rioters after his limbs being cut off with a sword. The rioters, after cutting his hands and feet, threw the rest of his body into the burning fire.
The incident was first reported by Opindia, when the relatives of Dalbir, the deceased, contacted us and reported the horrific accident. He came to Delhi just 6 months ago from Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. He used to work at a sweet shop located in Shiv Vihar. he Uttarakhand government has announced financial assistance of five lakh rupees to the family of the deceased.
His close aide Shyam Singh told Opindia that some rioters entered the Shahdara area on the evening of 23 February. The rioters made Negi their first target. They cut off his arms and legs. Then, they burnt his body in a nearby shop. He was accompanied by his two other companions in the building who managed to escape from there.
On February 26, when the shop owner Anil Pal reached the spot to know the condition of his shop with the police, he found the body of the deceased Negi near the stairway on the second floor. We can assume that he was trying to jump from the building after seeing the rioters.
At least 42 people were killed and more than 200 people were injured in the Delhi Anti-Hindu riots. The violence that was unleashed on the streets by radical Muslim mobs, fuelled by the contentious objective of Khilafat 2.0 have caused significant damage to personal and public property. They blew up houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and opened fire on local people and police personnel.
The Delhi riots have exposed further a rather ugly underbelly of the media fraternity. Throughout the riots and even after, the media has been trying its best to try and further a false narrative of the Delhi riots being an anti-Muslim pogrom when in reality, the Delhi riots were aggression by Islamist mobs. In fact, the aggression started way back in December when Muslim mobs had run riots and gone on a rampage, supposedly, against the Citizenship Amendment Act. There are several channels, journalists and portals that have furthered the false narrative about Delhi riots, however, NDTV has led the charge rather effectively. The Media has been hell-bent on blaming BJP leader Kapil Mishra for the Delhi riots.
A few days before the riots, Kapil Mishra had said that the protestors who have been blocking roads must clear the area, or, after President Donald Trump leaves, he will have to come on to the streets as well. The media latched on to this statement and tried to blame Kapil Mishra for ‘provoking riots’. In doing so, they, of course, shielded the Islamists who had made far more provocative statements. Sharjeel Imam had spoken about grinding Delhi to a halt and breaking up the country, Umar Khalid had actually incited violence by asking people to take to the streets while President Donald Trump was here, Waris Pathan had alluded to the fact that Muslims can overpower Hindus and AAP’s Amanatullah Khan had been booked already for inciting violence.
While shielding all those who incited violence, the media worked overtime to blame the riots on Kapil Mishra. Furthering that agenda, NDTV, the propagandists-in-chief, published a video on 6th March where one of their lie-peddling anchors, Srinivasan Jain, was supposedly talking to Kapil Mishra’s landlord.
In the video, the man being spoken to, one Sanjay Gupta, is identified as the landlord of Kapil Mishra by NDTV. It is not only in the narration, but even in the ticker, he is identified as such repeatedly.
NDTV snapshot
While the NDTV likes to claim that they actively managed to track down the Landlord of Kapil Mishra who in turn blamed Kapil Mishra for the riots, the truth might be something completely different.
Kapil Mishra has claimed that Sanjay Gupta is not his landlord. Speaking to OpIndia, BJP leader Kapil Mishra claimed that Sanjay Gupta was not his landlord. In fact, he said that Sanjay Gupta has never been his landlord ever.
The same statement was made by Kapil Mishra on Twitter as well.
He has claimed that NDTV picked up some random person from the streets and claimed that he was Mishra’s landlord.
In fact, during the video too, Sanjay Gupta seems to not claim that he is the ‘landlord’ of Mishra. The manner in which Gupta is speaking seems to suggest that he might have been a property broker and not a landlord.
Kapil Mishra, speaking to OpIndia also claimed that the street where Srinivasan Jain is standing with Sanjay Gupta is not even the street where Mishra lives.
NDTV has attempted actively to stoke tensions and peddled blatant lies during the Delhi riots. Earlier, OpIndia had busted how the channel had lied while reporting about two schools in the Shiv Vihar area. One school was Muslim owned while the other was Hindus owned. The Muslim owned school was used as a launchpad for attacks against Hindus. OpIndia found several sacks of bricks, petrol bombs, crude bombs etc on the terrace of the Muslim owned school. The Hindu owned school was completely ravaged and gutted by the Muslim mob. NDTV, with no evidence, claimed that it was the Muslim owned school that was attacked by Hindu mobs first. This was a complete lie concocted by NDTV to implicate Hindus falsely.
The government on Friday constituted a Delimitation Commission to redraw Lok Sabha and Assembly Constituencies of the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
According to the reports, the Delimitation Commission to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, a law ministry notification said. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and state election commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states will be the ex-officio members, it said.
The appointment of Justice Desai will be for a period of one year or till further orders, whichever is earlier, the notification said.
Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province with a legislative body. The new delimitation will enable the process of redrawing the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the four northeastern states.
“The Commission will delimit the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the provisions the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, and of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland in accordance with the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002, the notification said.
The last delimitation across the country was conducted in 2002, but these states were left out due to various reasons. In the four states of North East India, delimitation could not be carried out along with other Indian states due to prevailing security reasons. But now, the government thinks the situation has changed.
The delimitation in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir comes nine months after the controversial Article 370 was scrapped and the state was divided into two union territories. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 which was cleared in Parliament in August 2019, mentioned new delimitation to redraw the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir according to section 62 of the Act.
The notification of the law ministry said that “it appears that the circumstances that led to the deferring of the delimitation exercise have ceased to exist and that the delimitation of the constituencies as envisaged under the Delimitation Act, 2002 could be carried out now.”
According to section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114. Out of these 24 seats are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. So effectively, the seats will go up from 83 to 90.
The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court. In India, four such Delimitation Commissions have been constituted.
The first one was constituted in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, second in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962. Subsequently, another delimitation commission was set up in 1973 under the Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under the Delimitation Act, 2002.
The intelligence agencies have specific evidence that connects the terror-state of Pakistan to the anti-CAA protests, reports Hindustan Times. The evidence corroborates the fact that Pakistan had indeed tried to amplify the violence on the streets of Delhi and had made an all-out effort to spread false propaganda at UN Human Rights Council at Geneva by equating the Delhi riots to 2002 Gujarat riots.
According to Hindustan Times, the Indian intelligence agencies have picked up cross-country electronic communication where people believed to be Pakistani operatives are reprimanding their sources for failing to organise anti-CAA protests with enough mobs on March 3-4 despite the funding at their disposal.
In one such call, the handler attacks his sources for failing to organise an anti-CAA protest and states that he has to now explain to his higher-ups for the lack of crowds.
It is believed that despite the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi was contained at a significant cost, the Pakistani establishment supported by its sympathisers in India will try and use it as an instrument to radicalize young Muslims in north India against the Narendra Modi government through videos and speeches. A similar modus operandi was used after the 2002 riots in Gujarat, they add.
Reportedly, Islamabad’s cause is being supported by other Muslim states such as Iran and Turkey as part of their effort to pitch for leadership in the Shia and Sunni world of Islam.
The Pakistan establishment, especially the ISI, has put every effort to defame India in the UN bodies by talking about the alleged Muslim killings and persecution by the NDA government. However, the Imran Khan government has avoided blaming CAA as the law is designed only to help persecuted minorities in Pakistan among other neighbourhood countries.
Making a national statement at the UNHRC, Pakistan’s permanent representative warned the Council on “India’s drift towards fascism and rank communalism…” and asked the High Commissioner to “prevent violence and ensure the safety of Muslims in Delhi” and elsewhere in the country.
On the day of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India, the national capital had witnessed unprecedented violence. The anti-CAA riots turned communal in Delhi resulting in severe violence on the streets of Delhi.
The anti-Hindu riots were carefully planned by certain anti-India elements within the country, backed by sections of media, to intensify the so-called anti-CAA protests. However, the Muslim mobs, which were at the forefront of these protests, soon gave up the idea of ‘peaceful’ protests and resorted to their usual modus operandi of inflicting massive terror on the citizens of the national capital.
Shockingly, the left “liberal-secular” media of the country, chose to work on similar lines to amplify the riots by inciting Muslim population through blatant misinformation campaign. Just like Pakistan, which pushed the false narrative of Muslims being the victim despite being the perpetrator of violence on the streets of the Delhi, the media industry of the country also continued with false reporting to fear-monger and incite Muslims, who further descended on the streets to inflict more terror.
Ever since the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by the Indian government, the “liberal-secular” media, both within the country and international media, has been at the forefront of spreading false propaganda. In a way, these media instigated people with false reportage resulting in the anti-Hindu riots.
Later, these left-wing media industry also tried to whitewash the crimes committed by Muslim mobs and instead are blaming Hindus for the anti-Hindu riots.
The anti-Hindu riots that engulfed the streets of Delhi have resulted in deaths of around 50 persons and more than 250 people sustained injuries in the violence that started on February 23. The injured include around 70 persons from the security forces. More than 50 FIRs had been filed and 514 suspects had also been rounded up by the police. The cops have set up 2 SITs for investigating serious cases of offence that took place during the riots.
Ever since India won its independence, there has been an organized effort to whitewash the crimes committed against in the Hindu community. Even when the crime was obvious, an assorted bunch of intellectuals, academicians, activists and ‘journalists’ engaged in complete hogwash to pretend as if nothing ever happened and Hindus did not suffer any brutality. This has been India’s reality since independence.
Over time, such buffoonery has become institutional and we have a generation of completely brainwashed clowns who could not recognize Hinduphobia if it danced in front of them wearing Burhan Wani’s nappies. One of the products of such indoctrination on an industrial scale is Newslaundry. The ‘news outlet’ has made it a habit of peddling politically biased narratives in the garb of neutrality, propaganda under the cloak of objectivity, righteousness over the shroud of Hindu corpses.
On the 6th of March, Newslaundry published a ‘ground report‘ on the basis of which it branded OpIndia’s ground report ‘fake news’. According to Newslaundry, OpIndia made four claims and on the basis of its ground report, it claimed to ‘rebut’ each of these. Together, we shall verify the claims made by Newslaundry one by one on each of these four issues. But first, let us see what OpIndia did say on the matter.
“Local Hindus’ speaking to OpIndia said that a crowd of Muslims, mostly youths, approached through Mustafabad in Delhi. They all gathered on the bridge of Chand Bagh. From there, they reached Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain’s building. They went to the terrace, from where they started throwing stones and petrol bombs.
These locals also revealed to Opindia that the Muslim crowd captured a Shiv temple by climbing on to the roof of the temple, placing ladders at the back yard of the Shiva temple. Apart from forcibly occupying the temple, the Islamist goons also captured the surrounding Hindu houses.
The mob allegedly vandalised the temple, after which they climbed the roof of the Shiv Mandir and started pelting stones on the Hindus from there. On one side there was stone pelting from the roof of Tahir Hussain’s building, and on the other side, there was stone pelting from the temple, divulged the devastated Hindus of Chand Bagh.”
Now that readers have acquainted themselves with our report, let us proceed to debunk Newslaundry’s thuggery one claim at a time. Before we begin, Newslaundry appears to have taken great issue with the fact that we reported that the Shiv Mandir was in Chand Bagh when it was actually in Moonga Nagar. Well, Moonga Nagar is only 750 meters away from Chand Bagh. Chand Bagh and Moonga Nagar are just a drain apart. Since Chand Bagh is the better-known area, Moonga Nagar is often identified with it.
1. A Muslim mob climbed the terrace of the Shiv Temple
Newslaundry quoted Gokul Chandra Sharma, the caretaker of the Temple, to claim that a Muslim mob had not climbed the terrace of the Shiv Temple in question. Where was Sharma when the attack on the Temple occurred? He was locked inside his home because he was scared for his life. Thus, Newslaundry is taking Sharma’s words as the ultimate truth, a man who did not see anything and could not even say who threw the stones at the terrace because he was locked inside his home, scared. We are not making this up, Newslaundry has itself quoted Sharma as saying so.
Newslaundry’s conversation with Gokul Chandra Sharma
Newslaundry also had a conversation with Ram Shamra, a person who lives opposite the Temple, who admitted that Muslims used ladders to climb into the terraces of Hindu homes beside the Temple but not on the terrace of the Temple. Another anonymous source told them Muslims could not even get to the Temple because Hindus were pelting stones at them from the opposite rooftops. Now, let us get to the truth of the matter.
We were not the only ones who reported on the attack of the Temple. Know The Nation, another organization had also reported on the matter. They also talked with the people present in the attack and they gave a chilling account of the events that transpired. Know The Nation was also informed of the terrible nature of the attack, however, the two people who were witness to the attack fled the place because they realized couldn’t help in any manner and they would be risking their lives if they stayed any longer.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny6h2Vz5_N4]
The two youth also said that the ‘Mahommedan mob’ had climbed on top of the terraces but it is unclear from their statement whether the mob climbed atop Sharma’s terrace also. In any case, they were not present during the entire duration of the attack. They also informed that petrol bombs and stones were pelted at the Temple while Gokul Chandra Sharma locked himself up with his daughters in his house. He was quite worried about the safety of his daughters.
We were told by eyewitnesses that the Muslim mob had climbed on the terrace of the Temple. That is what we stated in our report. It is unclear to us how on earth Newslaundry could accuse us of spreading ‘fake news’ when we reported what the eyewitnesses said. Unless, of course, the preconceived agenda of the ground report was to engage in the denial of the crimes suffered by the Hindus.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PN988ta2mo]
2. The Muslim mob captured the Temple
Newslaundry claimed that Gokul Chandra Sharma ‘refuted’ the claim saying, “There was no attack inside the temple. Nobody came here nor did they break anything. All our idols are fine. They have not been harmed.” Nowhere in our report did we claim that the inside of the Temple was vandalized, nowhere did we claim that the idols were damaged either. It doesn’t say anything about whether Sharma refuted the claim of whether the Mandir was captured. Newslaundry appears to be putting words into Sharma’s mouth.
Furthermore, it appears that Sharma himself realized that the Newslaundry journalist was acting in bad faith and therefore, he was reserved in his words. While he told Newslaundry that he wasn’t aware of who were pelting the stones, he did tell Know The Nation that the mob pelting the stones and attacking the Temple was ‘Mahomeddan’. We were told by the eyewitness whose statement has been attached above that the Temple was captured by the mob.
Also, it is interesting the NewsLaundry says that the temple was not captured. Picture this. There is a Muslim mob that has surrounded the temple from all sides, some also say there were atop the temple terrace. The Muslim mob was also pelting stones and petrol bombs from the surrounding building. Nobody could go in, to rescue anyone, and the ones inside could not escape. In such a scenario, would the temple be considered captured or not? Or is it NewsLaundry’s contention that only if Namaz was read inside would the temple be considered captured?
And really, how many IQ points does it take to realize that the Temple was indeed captured when Sharma who had locked himself up in his home fearing for the life of his family? Sharma told Newslaundry that he was not even living in his home when he had the conversation with the ‘journalist’. But even then, Newslaundry was busy claiming that the Idols were not vandalized, a claim we had not made in the first and on the basis of it, declared that the Mandir had not been captured. It is truly some remarkable journalism we witnessed here.
3. The mob allegedly vandalised the temple
If you believed Newslaundry has hit the pits already, we assure you will be surprised. The mob pelted stones and petrol bombs at the Temple. This much is not disputed by anyone, not even the NewsLaundry report. Sharma was forced to lock himself up in a room to ensure the safety of his family, especially his two daughters. Is the terrace a separate entity than the Temple? Does the terrace in a vacuum? From the Know The Nation report, the extent of the stone-pelting is quite clear.
Petrol bombs were hurled, a huge amount of stones were pelted, things got burnt but Newslaundry reached the conclusion that the Temple was not vandalized because it occurred primarily on the terrace and the terrace, as we all know, is entirely a separate entity from the Temple which floats on the ocean of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb. It seems according to Newslaundry, it doesn’t matter if petrol bombs were hurled at the Temple and the terrace was strewn with stones, we cannot call it vandalization. Why? Because it hurts Newslaundry’s agenda of whitewashing the suffering of Hindus.
The intelligence of Newslaundry is at its glorious magnificence when it asks its readers, “Yet in the video, the reporter himself said people did not allow stone-pelters to enter the temple. So, why is the story saying the exact opposite, with its claims of vandalism and a mob “forcibly occupying” the temple?” This, dear readers, is the level of intelligence of the average Newslaundry journalist. It would have been hilarious if their agenda wasn’t so sinister.
Someone should probably inform Newslaundry that if you climb on the top of a building and pelt stones and petrol bombs in the surrounding places, it is convention norm to consider that you have captured the building. The same rules apply to Temples as well. Apart from that, the eyewitnesses themselves said that the Temple was captured by the Muslim mob.
We were told by another individual that the Shiv Mandir was attacked with stones. We were also told a furniture shop close adjacent to the Temple was vandalized as well. The locks of the shop were forced open before it was set on fire. Furthermore, he clearly calls it an attack on the Shiv Mandir. The building adjacent to the Temple share a common wall and it was gutted by the fire.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFCicCtNObk]
Our precise words were, “The mob allegedly vandalised the temple, after which they climbed the roof of the Shiv Mandir and started pelting stones on the Hindus from there.” We reported what we were told and what we were told can be heard in the video.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWBaDqAcmr8]
4. The Islamist mob hurled stones at Hindus from the roof of the temple
Newslaundry says that the claim contains only a ‘quarter of the truth’. We have eyewitnesses who have said that the Islamist mob indeed pelted stones from the roof. It did happen. And Newslaundry’s efforts to whitewash the event will not alter reality.
Newslaundry further states, “The mob did not climb onto the temple terrace. Hindus were not just hapless victims of stone-pelting. They were pelting back.” The entire objective of the groud report is summarized in this single line. It was to prove that Hindus were not victims. Everything else was just a charade, Newslaundry set out from the very beginning to prove that Hindus are not victims. Because that is the foundation upon which the edifice of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb is built upon. That Hindus under no circumstances can be victims.
Thus it happened that Newslaundry completely ignored the plight of Sharma who was forced to live away from his own home for the fear of his life. He is not a victim according to Newslaundry. The entire area which was attacked with stones and petrol bombs, the numerous Hindu houses which were attacked, none of them are victims. Why? Because they are Hindus.
While certain people were claiming that Tahir Hussain was acting in self-defense and went on to defend the AAP Councillor, legitimate Hindu victims are being ignored because some people pelted stones at the Muslim mob, and every piece of evidence points towards the fact that it was in retaliatory. But that is not enough to whitewash the victimization of Sharma and other hapless Hindus. This was Newslaundry’s objective from the very beginning. Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb commands it and thus, Newslaundry complied.
Newslaundry’s claim 1: “No attacks on temples in the area”
Newslaundry has indeed said such a thing. It has said this in the same report where Sharma said that petrol bombs and stones were being hurled at the terrace of the Temple. But sure. believe Newslaundry when it says, “No attacks on temples in the area”. Is it supposed to be some kind of a stupid joke?
Newslaundry just reported on an incident where the caretaker is forced to live away from his home on the terrace of the Temple after surviving a horrid attack. And then Newslaundry says in the same report that no Temples were attacked in the area. We have no explanation for this unbelievable crazy behaviour apart from the obvious fact that Hinduphobia has a way of making you mad. The Gods are not very forgiving, it seems.
Newslaundry’s claim 2: OpIndia propagated fake news right as Delhi burned
Someone should inform Newslaundry that facts are not fake news and they cannot be altered through manufactured propaganda. The Temple was captured, it was attacked, it was vandalized and they could try but they will not be able to alter the series of events that transpired during the Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots.
Newslaundry goes on to boldly assert, “Our conclusion? OpIndia propagated fake news right as Delhi burned. Meanwhile, people are returning to work, roads are being cleaned, destroyed property is being rebuilt. Despite a Hindu nationalist blog’s attempt to fan flames, life might limp back to normal.”
The propagandists’ ode to Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb really warmed our hearts because we were told by their comrades that we were living under a fascist regime where people don’t have freedom of speech and expression, our civil rights are being curbed and the Modi-Shah duo is only one step away from locking all the Indian Muslims in concentration camps. But sure, we are the ones fanning flames here. Because, obviously.
Meanwhile, ’eminent peace-loving intellectual activists’ are busy on the streets inciting Muslim mobs and undermining the institutions of the country. They are not the ones fanning flames. Oh, no. OpIndia is. How? By reporting on the atrocities that Hindus suffered in the wake of the communal riots in Delhi. Because the crimes of Hindus must never be told.
Our Conclusion?
The employees at Newslaundry are a bunch of propagandists with IQ levels that would shame baboons. They have been brainwashed to an extent that they do not recognize petrol bombs and stones being pelted at a Temple as a legitimate attack on a Temple. In fact, there was not a hint of concern or sadness over the fact that a Temple was attacked and that its caretaker is forced to live away from his home for the fear of his life and that of his family.
It’s only natural that there was not a hint of sadness or concern. Newslaundry did not go there to listen to the story that the Hindu residents had to share. They went there to whitewash the atrocities that Hindus suffered. Thus, when they could see that they had achieved their objective, it was pretty hard to hide the glee. When your heart’s rotten to the core by Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb, no amount of atrocities against Hindus could possibly melt your heart.
Meanwhile, Abhinandan Sekhri is a long-term aide of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal. He had co-founded the NGO ‘Public Cause Research Foundation’ which eventually evolved into ‘India Against Corruption’ movement that gave birth to AAP. He also co-founded Newslaundry, a self-declared media watchdog, which has till now deleted at least two of its own reports as they went against self-declared ‘liberal’ journalists. Unsurprisingly, Newslaundry is also busy defending Tahir Hussain, the AAP Councillor, who is a prime accused in the murder of Intelligence Bureau Constable Ankit Sharma.
Essentially, a propaganda outlet that has deep connections with the Aam Admi Party defends a murder and riot accused Tahir Hussain by saying that there is hardly any evidence against, when there is plenty, simply because he is an AAP leader and in the same breath, downplays attacks against Hindus and Hindu Temples by Islamists because to defend Hussain, the Islamist mobs would also need to be shielded. It is rather amusing that NewsLaundry, which is a failing outlet clutching on to straws, could not even produce one article that doesn’t turn them into a joke.
Two Kerala based Malayalam News channels, namely Asianet News and MediaOne had been rewarded with 48-hour token ban by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for their shoddy ‘coverage of the Delhi riot’.
Both these channels have been displaying a black screen since 7.30 pm on March 6 (Friday), when they were taken off-air. Both channels will resume the broadcast only at 7.30 pm on March 8 (Sunday) after completion of the 48-hour ban.
The order alleged that the two Malayalam News channels have indulged in biased coverage of the Delhi riots, being critical of the RSS and Delhi police and siding with a particular community, showing those who supported Citizenship Amendment Act in poor light.
It alleged that this kind of provocative coverage could further incite communal violence.
“It appeared that telecast of reports on North-East Delhi violence had been shown in a manner which highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community. Channel’s reporting on Delhi violence seems to be biased as it is deliberately focusing on the vandalism of CAA supporters. It also questions RSS and alleges Delhi Police inaction. Channel seems to be critical towards Delhi Police and RSS,” the order said in relation to MediaOne.
The Ministry has further alleged that MediaOne accused the Delhi Police of remaining inactive during the violence, and the channel also blamed police for vandalising shops and fruit carts.
“The channel also reported that violence took place mostly in Muslim dominated area of Chand Bagh, Delhi. While telecasting the news, the channel carried the news of stone-pelting, arson and injured people being taken to hospital,” the order says.
This kind of loose reporting could have ‘incited violence and posed danger to the maintenance of law and order situation, particularly when the situation is already highly volatile and charged up and riots are taking place in the area’, the order read.
Where Asianet News is concerned, its report by their journalist PR Sunil on the violence in Jaffrabad and about Delhi police being mute spectators led to this temporary ban.
Whereas for Media One, it is their bulletin carrying on a phone-in conversation with its Delhi correspondent, Hassanul Banna, reporting about the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protestors being injured while Delhi police refusing to visit the spot and nab the rioters that led to the ban.
The order further read that Asianet News reported about how rioters blocked commuters and attacked them for their religion, attacking houses of Muslims in Hindu majority areas and rioters firing at each other with slogans of Jai Sri Ram and Azadi in the air.
The News channel also reported about shops, houses and vehicles being burnt and no action being taken as the violence continued for the third day, with the Central Government not acting to control the riots.
This report, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry order said, had been shown in a manner that highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community. It said the reporter alleged that central troops had not arrived on time and that he had witnessed the attacks on Muslims. The reporter had also said that rioters had asked which religion he belonged to. “While reporting such critical incidents, the channel (Asianet News TV) should have taken utmost care and should have reported it in a balanced way. Such reporting could enhance the communal disharmony across the country when the situation is highly volatile,” the order said.
Sunil’s story had in fact gone viral in Kerala and he had been lauded for his report that showed what happened through the day on February 25.
Both channels have been taken off air citing two rules under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994:
Rule 6(1 c)- says that no programme should be carried which contains attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes.
Rule 6(1 e)- says that no programme should be carried which is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promote anti-national attitudes.
The I&B ministry had imposed a similar token 24-hour ban on NDTV in 2016 their coverage of Pathankot terrorist attack. The penalty of taking the channel off-air for one full day came after the IMC noted with “grave concern” that the channel had “revealed sensitive details like the location of ammunition depot and the place where terrorists were held up, location of the school and residential areas”.
After several cases of coronavirus emerged from the state of Uttar Pradesh, the UP government is set to convert the giant Aala Hazrat Haj House situated in Ghaziabad’s Arthala into a 500-bed isolation centre in order to avoid any further medical repercussions in the sensitive environment. The coronavirus has already hit the country infecting 31 patients and around 30000 quarantined.
On Thursday, the district administration of Ghaziabad and officials from minority board inspected the Haj house, which will be soon turned into an isolation centre for coronavirus patients. Chief Medical officer of Ghaziabad, Narendra Gupta and ADM city Shailendra Singh told that the UP government is very serious regarding the epidemic. The Haj house comprises large dormitory halls that will be converted into wards. The Haj house isolation centre will have a capacity of 500 beds to quarantine and cure the patients of Coronavirus.
A health advisory has been released by the UP government creating awareness among the people to prevent COVID-19 novel coronavirus to spread and not to panic.
It is reported that only serious patients will be kept in the isolation wards of the Haj house so that they can stay a distance from the reach of others and avoid others getting infected. The Haj house will be converted into a fully furnished isolation centre in two-three days.
The Haj House in Ghaziabad was built at the cost of Rs 51 crore in order to give assistance to Muslims on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s Mecca. The complex, spread over an area of 4.3 acres, has ground plus six floors and includes 47 dormitory halls and 36 VIP rooms, and can accommodate 1,886 persons. The house was inaugurated by the then UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in September 2016. It was sealed by National Green Tribunal in February 2018, due to lack of a Sewage Treatment Plant.
Neighbourhood in the northeast part of Delhi was racked with anti-Hindu riots as violent Muslim mob went on a rampage against the Hindus in the last week February. Many innocent people fell victim to the Muslim onslaught who were killed only because they did not profess the same faith as their assailants. One of those victims was Naresh Saini. Brought in a badly battered state at the GTB hospital, Saini put up a courageous fight with his injuries for several excruciating days in the ICU ward of the hospital before giving in to his injuries on March 4.
Naresh Saini, who lived on street number 1 of Brahmapuri area, was caught amidst the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi when he came out of his home to lend himself in safeguarding the nearby Hindu temple which had just come under attack from the ferocious Muslim mob. Naresh, along with other conscientious Hindus living on the same street came out at around 4:30 in the morning when they came to know that a legion of rabid Muslims has swarmed the region with the ulterior motive of taking down the nearby Hindu temple.
According to Naresh’s family, when he sprinted from their residence towards the temple, a mob of 400-500 frenzied people approached from ahead and shot a bullet at Naresh, grievously injuring him. Naresh was so severely injured from the bullet that he remained in an unconscious state until his death. He was also taken to GTB Hospital, where he was admitted in the ICU before he breathed his last on March 4, 2020.
The family of Naresh says that their son was unarmed at the time when the riotous mob attacked him. They added that Naresh had gone out to defend the Hindu temple from being vandalised by the mobsters but they had no inkling that the mob would wreak havoc on the family.
The anti-Hindu riots in Delhi have taken a huge toll, especially on beleaguered Hindus, who found themselves surrounded by murderous mobs baying for their blood and attacking their places of worship. In addition to Naresh’s heartrending tale of sacrifice, there are other agonising stories as well where innocent Hindus were killed by the bloodthirsty mob. In Gokulpuri, Nitin, just 15 years old, was brutally hacked to death. Another Hindu, Alok Tiwari, who had just gone out of his house for a leisurely stroll, was mortally wounded by the mob and abandoned to die. Another victim, Dilbar Singh Negi, suffered the most horrifying fate. On the 24th of February, when the violence erupted in Delhi, the same evening, a 20-year-old Dilbar Singh Negi was set ablaze by a mob of rioters after having his limbs severed by a sword.
An NRI businessman named Sachin Joshi, who is currently residing in Mumbai, has lodged a complaint of cheating and fraudulence against actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra. Joshi claimed that he was duped by both when they were directors of the Satyug Gold Pvt. Ltd., a gold-trading company.
Joshi has lodged a criminal complaint of cheating, fraud and other charges against Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra and officials of SGPL such as Ganpati Chaudhary, Mohammed Saifi, and others with the Khar Police Station in Mumbai.
The NRI has claimed in the police complaint that he was duped by SGPL’S ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’ that was launched in 2014. Joshi noted that under a five-year gold plan, the buyer of the gold which was sold under the ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’ was offered a ‘Satyug gold card’ at a discounted rate and promised a certain fixed quantity of gold redeemable after a five-year period.
As per Raj Kundra’s statements at the ‘gold dream’ launch, an investor who bought a certain sum of gold at the then-current rates with full advance payment will be entitled to ‘Satyug gold card’, that can be redeemable in stages with attractive discounts–15% after two years, 26% after three years, 30% after four years and 37% after five years.
Joshi’s spokesperson told IANS that he had purchased One kg gold for nearly Rs 18.58 lacs in March 2014 at then prices. It would be redeemable on or after March 25, 2019, at the promised discounts of the Satyug Gold Card.
The spokesperson explaining the scheme asserted that at current rates, the original investment would have fetched around Rs 44 lacs or more than double as today the gold prices crossed the Rs 4.4 million per kg mark.
When Joshi went to redeem his one-kg golden asset on the due date in March 2019, he found that the SGPL office in Bandra Kurla Complex in Suburban Mumbai was shut with no employees or representatives available there.
Upon enquiring, Joshi learned that the office of SGPL had been shut long ago, the website showed a new office address that is at Shalimar Morya Park in Andheri West. On visiting the new office, they were informed that the address did not belong to SGPL. After frequent searches on websites, Joshi eventually got the same response everywhere that office from where he bought gold don’t belong to SGPL.
In November 2019, Joshi’s representative happened to meet one of the company officials at the Malad West address who claimed that it was not possible to redeem the claim as the company was processing multiple claims, and suggested he should return in December 2019.
Joshi was more shocked after he searched on the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs when he learned that Shetty and Kundra had resigned as directors of SGPL in May 2016 and November 2017 respectively.
Joshi said, “It became clear from all these facts that SGPL was a fraudulent entity being used to run the fake ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’ using the name of celebs like Shilpa Shetty. I have suffered a loss of Rs 18.58 lakh on my gold investment.”
Recently, an online portal Boom Live, which incidentally is accredited by IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) as a fact-checker, ran a story about Justice Muralidhar’s transfer from Delhi court. The story was hosted by none other than the controversial journalist Faye D’Souza, who insinuated that Justice Muralidhar was abruptly transferred by the central government after he pulled up the government and the Delhi Police in a midnight hearing in the Delhi anti-CAA riots.
In her video, Faye asserted that Justice Muralidhar was summarily transferred by the central government because of his critical remarks against the Delhi Police and his directives to the police to issue FIRs against politicians alleged of making provocative speeches.
“It was Justice Muralidhar who instructed the police to file an FIR against these politicians who made inflammatory speeches. What happened then? Justice Muralidhar was transferred overnight. The next day the case went to the different judge who basically reversed the decision by granting 4 weeks to Delhi Police to file an FIR into the case,” Faye said.
She also added that judiciary should be functioning without favour or fear but if the “judges are transferred overnight without notice”, that would cause some level of fear amongst the judges, imperilling their ability to carry out their jobs in the spirit of law.
There are multi-level lies and insinuations laced in Faye’s assertions published by ‘fact‑checker’ Boom Live. Faye has asserted that Justice Muralidhar’s opinion and consent was not sought before his transfer and that he was transferred abruptly by the government for his disapproving remarks.
However, Boom Live clearly did not let the facts obstruct them from peddling propaganda against the government. The Union Government didn’t transfer Justice Muralidhar after an overnight decision, and the government can’t even transfer or appoint judges to the higher judiciary on its own. His transfer was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on February 12 itself, days before his midnight judgement after the Delhi riots, and the law ministry merely issued the notification as per the decision of the collegium. It may be noted that transfers and appointment in the higher judiciary are in the hand of the Collegium, and the govt has no role in it. Apart from justice Muralidhar, the SC Collegium had also recommended the transfer of justice Ranjit C More from Bombay to Meghalaya High Court, and justice Ravi V Malimath from Karnataka to Uttarakhand High Court.
Union Law Minister RS Prasad had rubbished several reports that said that the government has exacted revenge on Justice Muralidhar for his withering remarks in Delhi riots case by transferring him. Prasad tweeted that the transfer was done as per recommendation dated 12.02.2020 of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India. He also informed that before transferring the judge, his consent was taken, and well-settled process in such matters have been followed.
Transfer of Hon’ble Justice Muralidhar was done pursuant to the recommendation dated 12.02.2020 of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India. While transferring the judge consent of the judge is taken. The well settled process have been followed.
In an article published in the Hindu on February 21, days before violence engulfed the National Capital, it was reported that Justice Muralidhar had agreed for transfer willingly. “His consent was taken before transferring him. It is a routine one,” the source quoted by The Hindu said.
Clearing the air around the unnecessary controversy surrounding his transfer, Justice Muralidhar yesterday claimed that he was informed much in advance about his transfer. “I was informed on February 17 from CJI about the Collegium’s recommendation of my transfer to Punjab and Haryana Court and I had no problems with it,” Justice Muralidhar said.
In addition, Faye also insinuated that Justice Muralidhar’s “sudden” transfer happened to remove him from Delhi riots hearing after his criticism of Delhi Police. However, this assertion too is a lie because even if he was not transferred, he was not scheduled to hear the case further. The reason is, the case was not even listed for Justice Muralidhar’s court. The case was listed before the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, and justice Muralidhar had heard the case in urgency as the Chief Justice was absent on that day. The case was not transferred to his court, it remained listed under the CJ, so subsequently the case was to be heard by the CJ only, even if justice Muralidhar had remained in Delhi High Court.
The cause list of the Delhi High Court for February 27 shows that the case was to be heard by the Chief Justice at 2 PM.
The above evidence, freely available in public domain should have deterred Boom Live, ostensibly a Fact-Checker, from fuelling unfounded apprehensions about the state of judiciary in India but they continued to malign the government, regardless of the facts suggesting otherwise. Ironically, Faye peddled these unadulterated lies on Boom Live on her show titled as “Truth as be told”.
It is pertinent to note that Boom Live is an IFCN accredited fact-checker and yet, it blatantly indulged in publishing fake news to attack the central government without bothering to verify the facts in the matter. Moreover, the lies surrounding Justice Muralidhar’s transfer were debunked on February 27 itself, by the law minister, OpIndia, and many others, but still Boom Live published the video with the same lies one week later. This calls into question the significance of IFCN’s accreditation and casts aspersions on standards observed by IFCN in granting recognition.
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) recently came under severe criticism for its dubious and differing yardsticks to grant the Fact-Checking accreditation. While Indian portal Fact Hunt was rejected its partnership based on its founder’s old congratulatory tweets to PM Modi, the organisation had no qualms in continuing their association with habitual fake-news peddler Altnews, despite its owners’ overt support to political parties and flagrant violations of its policies.
Responding to the criticism, Baybars Orsek, director of IFCN, announced that they had asked AltNews a set of questions and after being satisfied with their response which was replete with lies, they concluded that there was no ground for any action against Altnews.
The accreditation from such a dubious organisation holds no value as not one but many of its signatories have been found showing scant regards for the facts on multiple occasions. Besides Boom Live and Altnews, Indiaspend is also one of the signatories of IFCN. Indiaspend was guilty of instituting a ‘Hate-tracker’ that notoriously displayed selective instances of communal violence in India to portray that violence against Muslims in India has increased after PM Modi came to power.
