The Delhi Police has slammed The Wire for a report where the far-left propagandists had accused the Police and the Judiciary of bigotry against the Muslim community. In its rejoinder, the Police said that the reporter had mixed up two completely different cases to claim that a Hindu and a Muslim man had been booked in the same case and yet had been treated differently. In reality, the two were completely different cases entirely and the journalist mixed them and drew far-fetched conclusions from it. However, it cannot be said with any certainty that this was indeed a mistake and not a deliberate distortion.
The Delhi Police said that the reporter in a “frenzy to buttress a hypothesis of bias and discrimination”, mixed up two completely different FIRs having the same number, i.e. 59, which were filed on two different dates, one on the 6th of March 2020 filed by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police and the other on the 26th of February 2020 by the Special Cell. The former was related to the Delhi Riots case which is still under investigation under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act while the latter was filed in connection with the Arms Act, the investigation in which has been completed, charge-sheet has been filed and the matter is now subjudice.
The Delhi Police said that in the court order of the second case, where the co-accused was a Muslim man, all the details are available. The statement said that The Wire journalist “cherry-picked” portion to lend an air of credibility to the “piece of fiction”. It further called The Wire report a work of “journalistic adventurism” where the author had conjured “an entirely new and hitherto unheard of” interpretation of a provision of the UAPA.
The statement said, “It is quite distressing to note that while forging two distinct cases of two different FIRs into one fanciful story of “Single FIR, Double Standard”, the author dispensed with the usual journalistic norm of cross-checking facts from an authorised source.” “It is requested that this rejoinder be taken into consideration and be published and tweeted with equal prominence, in line with the best professional ethics of objective journalism,” it added.
What was The Wire report about?
The Wire report was published under the headline, “Delhi Communal Violence: Jail for Pregnant Safoora, Bail for ‘Gun Supplier’ Sirohi” asked the question, “How can a person who was found in possession of illegal arms during a riot be granted bail in a riots case when others from whom nothing was recovered are still behind bars?” The report was written by Seemi Pasha, a notorious conspiracy theorist.
Since the initial publication of the report, a clarification has been added that reads, “Though both Safoora Zargar and Manish Sirohi are being proceeded against under FIR 59/2020, which is being handled by the Delhi Police Special Cell, there are in fact two FIRs of the same number which the Special Cell is handling. The first is dated February 27, 2020, and relates only to Manish Sirohi, and the second is dated March 6, which relates to Safoora and some others. In an earlier version of this story, both FIRs bearing the same number were erroneously treated as one.“
As expected, the propagandists have not shied away from the initial conclusions that were drawn on the basis of a completely false piece of information. Thus, although the very basis of the report has changed, the conclusions have been retrofitted in order to ensure that the propaganda still stays afloat. Thus, quite clearly, when the objective has been pre-decided, facts don’t matter.
