Yesterday, many mainstream media outlets had reported that 3 youth in Gujarat’s Godhra was assaulted by a group of miscreants the previous night for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
As per reports, a complaint lodged with the Godhara A Division police by one Siddiq Abdul Salam, a resident of Mohamadi mohalla in Godhara town, six unknown miscreants assaulted his son Samir (17) and two of his friends, Salman and Sohail for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
In his complaint, Siddiq Abdul, 40-year-old motor mechanic, said that his son along with his two friends went to Baba ni Madhi locality in Godhara town to take ‘a round’ at around 10 pm on Thursday when the six unknown people sitting on two motorcycles stopped them and asked them to chant Jai Shri Ram. When they refused to do so, they were beaten up, alleged Siddiq.
However, the Godhra police had stated that after a detailed examination of all available CCTV footage and an inquiry, it has been revealed that Siddiq was lying. As reported by Desh Gujarat, the police investigation confirmed that the clash had nothing to do with chanting of any religious slogan.
However, even a day after the clarification issued by the police over the matter, Times Now carried a PTI feed that said that three young men in Godhra have been assaulted by miscreants for not chanting Jai Shri Ram.
Not just Times Now, but many media outlets who had carried the story yesterday are yet to update their reports with the police clarification. Most headlines regarding the incident still read that three Muslim men were thrashed by people for not chanting Jai Shri Ram.
While some of the news portals have updated their report with the police statement, many are yet to do so.
Godhra SP Leena Patil had confirmed that the police investigation revealed that two groups of young men had quarrelled while riding bikes. The investigation revealed that it was an incident of two groups engaging in verbal spats and fighting with each other. SP Patil had stated that even the CCTV footages have been examined and it was found that the two groups were riding motorcycles side by side and were having a heated argument. No angle of religious slogans has been found. The matter is being further investigated.
In recent weeks, many such incidents have come to light where a communal angle was claimed by Muslims in entirely non-communal incidents. Many such claims of being forced to chant Jai Shri Ram have turned out to be fake. However, many mainstream and digital media outlets, who show amazing efficiency in reporting the initial claims, fail to report the busted lies.
