A complaint has been registered against The Wire Editor Siddharth Varadarajan of the leftist propaganda outlet ‘The Wire’ for publishing and circulating false propaganda with intent to cause violence after he had tweeted an article void of any facts pertaining to the death of a rioter during the tractor rally.
On Saturday, a complaint was registered against Varadarajan under Section 153B and 505 of the IPC in Rampur police station for trying to instigate the crowd by peddling false information about the death of a rioter named Navreet Singh, who had died during the tractor rally after his tractor turtled.
As per the FIR, after reading the article, people in Rampur were angered and created a tensed situation. “This post was done with under a conspiracy to create unrest and and stoke violence,” the FIR stated. The FIR stated that this post was done despite the fact that the 3 doctors carried out autopsy and submitted their findings in sealed envelop to concerned authorities.
“The three doctors have denied all insinuations and allegations in the post but Varadarjan has still kept the tweet up. This was done deliberately to stoke tension,” the FIR states.
The Wire in its article had contended that the rioter’s kin were ‘informed’ by the doctor who conducted autopsy, that he had died due to the bullet injuries despite contrarian post-mortem reports.
A complaint was registered by a person named Sanju Turaiah in the Civil Lines police station in Rampur accusing Siddharth Varadarajan of trying to create a tense situation by tweeting an article devoid of any fact.
The Wire distorts the claims of doctors, attempts to false propaganda on rioters death
The Wire on Saturday published an article insinuating that the protester who died during the Delhi tractor rally on Republic Day, had died of bullet injuries and not because of the injuries he sustained from the overturning of the tractor. The article further claims that the victim’s relatives spoke to the doctor who carried out the autopsy who claimed that while there was bullet injury, ‘his hands were tied’, thereby insinuating that the UP government is trying to coverup.
And while the Rampur District Magistrate clarified that all these statements are false, The Wire has stuck to its report. It has only updated the report while the headline still continues to be provocative.
The article titled “Autopsy Doctor Told Me He’d Seen the Bullet Injury But Can Do Nothing as His Hands are Tied” quoted the grandfather of the deceased to cast aspersions on the cause of the death of the protester and allege that the administration is hiding his real cause of the death.
The Wire report impugns the validity of the post mortem report released by a medical officer at the District Hospital, Rampur, after a 2 am autopsy on January 27, which concluded that the protester, Navreet Singh, had died because of “shock and haemorrhage as a result of antemortem head injury” which has also been consistent with the Delhi Police’s explanation.
The Wire invents quotes from doctors to allege that rioter had died of bullet injuries
However, the report published by Siddharth Varadarajan’s website quoted Hardeep Singh Dibdiba, the grandfather of the deceased, who said that a doctor had confided in him that the real cause of Singh’s death was a bullet injury.
“We were told by the doctor that they have clearly seen the bullet injury, and then we cremated his body peacefully. But we were cheated as the [post mortem] report that came out did not say that. The doctor even told me that even though he had seen the bullet injury, he can do nothing as his hands are tied,” The Wire quoted Hardeep Singh Dibdiba as saying.
Vikramjeet Singh, Navreet’s father, also raised suspicion over the autopsy report of his son’s death. Vikramjeet alleged that all those who saw Navreet’s body claimed that he died of a bullet injury. He also added that one of the doctors who did the post-mortem report allegedly confessed to him that Navreet died of a bullet injury but he could not do anything to mention the same in the postmortem report.
Uttar Pradesh police refutes false claims made by The Wire
But the claim of doctors being railroaded to prepare a false autopsy report was refuted by the senior-most police officer quoted by The Wire. According to ADG Bareilly Avinash Chandra, the police had no reason whatsoever to suppress or distort such a document because the matter is of Delhi Police.
Besides, the report also added a video of the deceased to buttress the claims made by the family. Referring to the video, the family stated that the gash over Navreet’s ears was an exit wound of a bullet. But, Manoj Shukla, deputy CMO and doctor at the district hospital in Rampur where the post-mortem report was prepared, said this was not the case. Repudiating the claims of a bullet wound, Shukla told The Wire that it might be possible that something else might have hit his right ear or the leftist portal might have gotten the wrong document.
Despite the refusal of the Uttar Pradesh Police and the deputy CMO of the hospital where the autopsy was conducted expressly denying that Navreet died of a bullet injury, The Wire did not bother to mention the same in their headline. Instead, it went ahead with a misleading headline to raise aspersions on the authenticity of the autopsy report.
However, the District Magistrate, Rampur, shared a signed declaration of the three doctors who had carried out the autopsy that the above allegations were false.
We ardently request you to please let’s be sticking to facts and facts only. We hope our request will be sincerely taken up by you. Thank you.
— DM Rampur (@DeoRampur) January 30, 2021
Here is the official declaration. pic.twitter.com/2dowcoMriM
The signed declaration states that none of the three doctors who were involved in the autopsy had spoken to any mediapersons or any other persons. The autopsy was video-recorded and the findings were given in sealed envelop to the officers.
Subsequently, The Wire has updated the article to include above information.
