On Friday, ‘journalist’ Rohini Singh took to Twitter to claim sexual harassment of female demonstrators at the hands of police personnel during protests over unemployment in Uttar Pradesh.
While sharing a picture of a female protestor being manhandled, she wrote, “If you are a mother, then, this picture should fill you with anger. If you are a father, then, this picture should worry you. If you are a brother, then, this picture should boil your blood.”
She further continued, “When girls step out of their house in UP, they are faced with eve-teasing and rape. But, they are being subjected to the same treatment by the police.” Invoking political connotations, Rohini Singh asked, “Is this ‘Ram Rajya’?”
But the ‘victim’ in the photo herself has denied the claims of Rohini Singh. The woman has has said that she was not harassed by police, and it was a case of mistaken identity.
Female protestor refutes claims of ‘deliberate’ harassment
In a video shared by popular social media user Ankur Singh, the female protestor said, “My name is Kanchi Singh. We were protesting near Gate no. 1 of Lucknow university. I was made to sit in the police van just like other protestors.” Citing mistaken identity, Singh clarified, “They mistook me for a boy due to my dress and made me sit in the van.” Refuting claims of sexual harassment at the hands of the police personnel as alleged by Rohini Singh, she emphasised, “They did not do anything to me. Nothing was deliberate. The theory of ‘harassment’ is just misunderstanding.”
2BHK Journalists are misusing a pic to accuse UP police of molesting a girl, comparing police to rapists.
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) September 18, 2020
Listen to Truth by the girl herself.
But propaganda journalists will have no shame. pic.twitter.com/v1vod5HdKY
UP Police denies allegations of sexual harassment
In a statement, the Police Commissionerate Lucknow clarified, “We want to clarify that it was important to disperse the protestors in light of the law and order situation. Since the crowd was huge, it was difficult to distinguish between the genders on the basis of their outfit. By mistake, the female protestor was taken away by the police personnel, after mistaking her for a man. Even the female protestor has acknowledged the misunderstanding caused over the attire. The Police Commissionerate Lucknow respects women and expresses regret over the incident.”
— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE LUCKNOW (@lkopolice) September 18, 2020
Rohini Singh targets Gujarat government with fake news
This is not the first that the journalist has tried to target BJP State governments with misleading news stories. Earlier in May, Rohini Singh authored an article for ‘The Wire’, titled- “Behind Ahmedabad’s Ventilator Controversy, a Backstory of Connections to Top BJP Leaders” which alleged that the Narendra Modi government is procuring 5000 ventilators from a Rajkot based firm which has already been accused of supplying substandard breathing machines to the Ahmedabad’s largest COVID-19 hospital.
However, the Press Information Bureau of India took cognisance of the lies and deceit peddled by Ms Singh in The Wire. The official Twitter handle of PIB issued a tweet denouncing the article published on the leftist rag as fake. PIB claimed that the ventilators which Ms Singh is talking about in her article were not procured but were received as a donation. It further added that the quality of the ventilators, which is continuously being ridiculed in the article published on The Wire was in accordance with the required medical standards.
