Not a single day goes by when mainstream media do not expose their communal bias. It is the norm for many mainstream media portals while reporting crimes to conceal the identity of culprit if he or she belongs to a particular community, while revealing the same if the accused is Hindu. In the latest incident exposing mainstream media’s communal bias, a Times of India (TOI) report on an incident of Love Jihad that took place in Delhi, the name and identity of the Muslim accused was completely omitted. In the above-mentioned incident of Love Jihad, an e-rickshaw driver named Dilbar Qureshi trapped a 13-year-old Hindu girl in a love affair posing as a Hindu man and later eloped with her on October 18.
Both the headline and the body of the report of the TOI have no mention of the name of the culprit Dilbar Qureshi. The TOI report merely says that a 13-year old girl was kidnapped by a 25-year old man and was rescued from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh by the police.
Details of Love Jihad incident in Delhi
The family of the minor victim, who lives in Delhi’s Chhatarpur area, filed a missing report with the police after the girl did not return home on October 18. It was found from the footage of the CCTV camera installed near her friend’s house that she had gone towards Qutub Minar metro station with Qureshi. According to victim’s family, the culprit had hidden his identity and had introduced himself as Rahul. Qureshi, who belongs to Shegupur village in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, was also married twice and had children as informed by police.
According to the Hindi daily-Dainik Jagran, the 13-year-old victim lives in Delhi’s Chhatarpur area and is currently studying in class 8. The family of the victim informed the police that Dilbar, who lived in their colony, had introduced himself to everyone as Rahul. Besides, the police said that Dilbar had created many Facebook accounts under various names. The police said that the accused who originally hails from Shegupur village in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh was already married twice and also had children.
