A Hindu boy named Ankit Saxena was brutally murdered in Delhi for being in a relationship with a girl named Shehzadi from the ‘minority’ community. The alleged murderers were relatives, including parents, of the girl.
According to media reports that carefully tried to hide the religion of the accused, there were altercations between the boy and girl’s family on the night of the murder. Ankit had been under pressure to break his relationship with the girl. Since he did not comply, he was murdered with his neck slit. Ankit was murdered on Thursday night as per reports.
The fact that the mainstream media tried to conceal the religious identity of the girl’s family was noted and pointed out by many people on social media. The grisly murder prima facie appears to be the outcome of the fact that the boy and the girl belonged to different religions. Only a few weeks back a Hindu boy was murdered in similar fashion in Bihar for falling in love with a girl from Muslim family.
Initial reports about the murder both in English and Hindi media outlets didn’t even point out that the boy and girl were from different religions. Few Hindi reports dared to say that the girl was from ‘another’ community. When the news spread on social media, the mainstream media presented it as ‘honour killing’, which in a way admitted that the murder had to do with notions of ‘honour’ which is often related to social groups one belong to.
A classic example of how media was biased in their reporting in this case was given by Twitter handle @attomeybharti who dug out the difference in reporting mainstream media indulged in dealing with similar crime::
While most of the mainstream media was busy in hiding the religious angle, one of the news channels met the family of Ankit and also his girlfriend Shehzadi. The girlfriend has also accused her family of brutally murdering Ankit. The girl’s family has also been accused of beating Ankit’s mother.
Honour killing in Capital!
23-year-old Ankit stabbed, throat slit over inter-faith affair? Girl says, “My family murdered Ankit”.@AninBanerjeeeee gets us the details.
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As per latest reports, 4 of the murder accused, including a juvenile member of the girl’s family, have been arrested by the police. BSF personnel were posted in the area (West Delhi) due to communal tension after reports of the incident.
