A day after a woman in southeast Delhi had claimed that she was assaulted and abused by her landlady for being a ‘Kashmiri’, more details are emerging in the case exposing her dubious claims.
On Friday, various media outlets had reported a story of an attack against a Kashmiri woman named Noor Bhat. The media reports suggested that the Kashmiri woman was assaulted and abused by her landlady and a man in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.
Noor Bhat, who belongs to Srinagar in Kashmir, had taken to Twitter to claim that her landlady entered the house with a man whom “she had never seen before”. She alleged that the landlady called her a ‘terrorist’ because they were from Kashmir. Further, Noor Bhat claimed that the incident took place in front of cops and accused the landlady of stealing her belongings from the house.
“So my landlady enters my house along with a man, that I have never seen in my whole life and starts to call me and my friends ‘TERRORISTS’ just because we are from KASHMIR that too, in front of a police official. They trespassed, broke in and our money, furniture (sic)” the Kashmir woman, Noor, said on Twitter.
“The man literally pushed me and the landlady as well tried to attack me, all in front of Delhi Police,” Noor Bhat claimed.
Reportedly, the house was rented to two sisters and one of the sisters, who is claiming to be a victim in the case, stated that her house lock was broken and valuables were stolen from the place.
As Noor Bhat took to Twitter to put her story, the ‘liberal-secular’ media latched onto the story of the ‘aggrieved’ Kashmiri woman and aggressively reported on the same. As the story went viral, many social media users took to Twitter to express their solidarity with the Kashmiri woman and condemned the landlady for attacking and abusing the Kashmiri woman by referring to her as a ‘terrorist’.
With the alleged victim being a ‘Kashmiri Muslim’, the left-liberals and the Islamists too joined to severely condemn the landlady and also attempted to weave a narrative around the issue.
Not just left-liberals and Islamists, even the Delhi Commission for Women, managed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Swati Maliwal jumped into the scene to take cognizance of the matter. “This is shocking & shameful. DCW team is in touch. We’ll ensure action,” she said.
DCW Chief Swati Maliwal also took a suo-motu cognizance of the matter and issued a notice to Delhi Police to look into the alleged attacks against the Kashmiri woman in Delhi.
However, days after Noor Bhat made strong allegations against her landlady by claiming that she was attacked and assaulted by her landlady, more details and evidence are emerging which completely contradicts the allegations made by Noor Bhat.
OpIndia speaks to landlady of the house
Speaking to OpIndia over the phone, Taruna Makhija, against whom the allegations of attack and assault have been made by the Kashmiri woman said that the allegations made by Noor Bhat were a blatant lie. In fact, according to Makhija, Noor Bhat is not even the real name of the Kashmiri woman.
The passport details accessed by OpIndia revealed that the name of the woman is Fiza Manzoor Bhat, who also goes by the name Noor Bhat.
According to Makhija, a residential space managed by their firm ‘Femstay’ was rented to Kashmiri youths named Shayaan Mohammad Nazir, Fiza Manzoor Bhat aka Noor Bhat. According to the agreement accessed by OpIndia, Bhat along with her sister Yuhanna Manzoor and Shayaan had occupied the residence from June 2, 2020, for a monthly rent of Rs. 55,000.
Makhija alleged that two sisters were staying in their residence from the past four months and were extremely irregular in paying the rent. The landlady alleged that the Kashmiri women behaved in a most atrocious manner and also created repeated nuisance in the housing complex.
She also alleged that once the women didn’t pay salary to their maid falsely accusing her of theft.
Taruna Makhija also informed that her tenants have not paid their electricity bill for months, and around Rs 70000-75000 is due to be paid. Due non-payment of the bill, the power connection to their house was disconnected, after which they illegally established a connection and were stealing electricity, she said.
Repeated complaints by RWA against Kashmiri residents
Taruna Makhija also revealed that she has been receiving several complaints against these two Kashmiri women ever since they occupied the apartment. She also added that the two Kashmiri women regularly created disturbances in the housing society by playing loud music at the night.
“We have received several complaints from RWA alleging that several friends of these Kashmiri women visited them and played loud music at their residence. Some of her friends used to brandish guns and fired bullets in the air,” said the landlady.
Not just that, we have accessed complaints by other residents of the housing society, alleging how these two youths had damaged the bicycle of one of their maids.
Here are the screenshots of a complaint raised by one of the other residents against the two Kashmiri women. According to the complaint made by the residents to Taruna, the Kashmiri girls, who are the residents of the fourth floor had broken their property and also a bicycle belonging to their maid.
Kashmiri women did not pay rent regularly
According to Taruna Makhija, the two Kashmiri women were extremely irregular in paying their rent. When asked to pay rent in August, one of the two sisters – Yuhanna had threatened to file a harassment case against the landlord.
In one of the conversations, Yuhanna, the sister of Noor Bhat had not only abused the landlady for asking the rent but had also threatened to sue her for allegedly ‘harassing’ and asking her to pay rent.
In fact, after receiving numerous complaints against these Kashmiri women, the landlady had asked them to vacate the house after clearing all their dues. Speaking to OpIndia, Makhija also said that she had even lodged a complaint in Amar Colony police station.
However, the Delhi Police did not take the matter seriously and asked us to settle the issue matter amicably as it was a ‘civil issue’, said Taruna Makhija. Taruna Makhija also shared details of complaint registered against the Kashmiri youth in the Amar Colony police station asking them to help to vacate the unruly Kashmiri residents.
Kashmiri residents had not paid their electricity bills, attacked BSES operator
In addition to these, the Kashmiri residents had even refused to pay the electricity bills of the residence. The landlady said that the tenants had to pay an outstanding balance of Rs. 62,360 to BSES. Despite requesting the two Kashmiri ladies to clear the electricity dues, they had not paid it, following which BSES officials had cut the electricity supply to their residence.
Shockingly, the two women had even attacked and manhandled the BSES officials for disconnecting the power supply to their residence following the non-payment of the due.
In the below video, one can see how the Kashmiri sisters – Noor Bhat alias Fiza and her sister Yuhanna are manhandling the BSES operator for disconnecting their connection. One of the Kashmiri sisters can be heard hurling abuses and threatening the BSES employee for carrying out his duty.
No evidence to substantiate their claims of being attacked
Interestingly, the allegations put up against the landlady by Noor Bhat, claiming that she was attacked and abused as a ‘terrorist’ falls flat as there is no evidence to back her claim.
However, another video accessed by OpIndia contradicts the whole claim made by Noor Bhat in which she alleges the landlady of calling her ‘terrorist’ for simply asking to pay their bills.
In the above video, the landlady can be heard confronting the Kashmiri woman for allegedly attacking the BSES operator. In reaction to that, one Kashmiri youth reacts to her aggressively by making false observations. “Are you calling Kashmiri students a terrorist?,” the Kashmiri youth asks.
In reality, no one in the video uttered any such words calling the Kashmiri youths as ‘terrorists’. Moreover, the Kashmiri woman has not produced any evidence to substantiate her claim even if the landlady has allegedly made such remarks off the camera.
In another video, one of the Kashmiri sisters along with her friends can also be seen mocking the landlady for asking to vacate from the residence for failing to pay the bills.
The Kashmiri woman had also claimed that she was physically attacked by their landlady. Showing some injury marks on her neck, the Kashmiri woman had alleged that her landlady had attacked asking them to vacate. She had also alleged that the landlady had taken away their furniture.
In response to these allegations, Taruna Makhija said that they never attacked the Kashmiri residents and challenged them to come forward and appear for a medical test. The Kashmir lady Noor Bhat is yet to appear for a medical test.
According to Makhija, the furniture belongs to their firm and they had rented a fully-furnished apartment to the Kashmiri women in June.
“Cat died due to non-availability of water and electricity, be happy that we are paying at least some rent”
In another video, the two Kashmiri women along with her friend Shayaan can be seen creating a ruckus on the streets. The Kashmiri residents were seen shouting at the landlady claiming that her cat had died because of non-availability of water and electricity.
In the below video, one of the Kashmiri sisters can be seen arguing with the landlady over the issue of payment of bills. The Kashmiri woman claims that her cat had died due to the non-availability of water and contends that the landlady should be happy that they were paying some rent to them.
The above images and videos indicate that the claims made by Kashmiri woman are bereft of truth. In fact, the serious allegations made by other residents and the documents accessed by OpIndia suggests that the two Kashmiri sisters and their friends have not only misbehaved with the residents of the housing society but also harassed the landlady by delaying the payment of rent and electricity dues.
Instead of clearing their dues, the Kashmiri women seems to have created a ruckus to falsely accuse the landlady of harassing them. The ‘liberal-secular’, who are often desperate for stories which depicts Kashmiri as ‘victims’ seems to have latched onto it without even verifying facts of the matter.
Taruna Makhija can be seen talking about her tenants in the video given below in an interview given to a media house.
(We at OpIndia tried reaching Noor Bhat. However, we have not received her response yet. The story will be updated once Bhat responds to us)
