The Indian Mujahideen terrorist Ariz Khan, who was awarded the death penalty for the murder of decorated Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in connection with the sensational 2008 Batla House encounter case, has moved the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and sentence. Going by its penchant, the Hindustan Times, has once again attempted to absolve the convicted terrorist from the heinous crime by prefixing the term ‘alleged’ before his name.
The mainstream media house while sharing the news on its Twitter handle captioned its Tweet as: “Alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist Ariz Khan has challenged in the Delhi court his conviction over the killing of inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.
The typical pattern of various media houses, of the likes of Hindustan Times, to humanize the terrorists did not fail to catch the attention of various social media users. @BefittingFacts mocked the media house by saying: “@htTweets you people should try writing “allegedly convicted”
.@htTweets you people should try writting “allegedly convicted” 😂 pic.twitter.com/CaqPOSSlp0
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) July 24, 2021
Veteran journalist and Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Kanchan Gupta schooled Hindustan Times for its biased reportage. Sharing the Tweet by Hindustan Times, he wrote: “Once convicted, an accused is no longer an ‘alleged’ accused”.
Once convicted, an accused is no longer an ‘alleged’ accused. https://t.co/mwfT4vOZIB
— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) July 24, 2021
It is pertinent to note here that following the outrage Hindustan Times has quietly deleted the Tweet and reposted the news with another caption. “On March 8 this year, Khan, 35, was found guilty of killing inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, and sentenced to death on March 15”, read Hindustan Times new Tweet posted a short while ago.
On March 8 this year, Khan, 35, was found guilty of killing inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, and sentenced to death on March 15#BatlaHouseEncounter https://t.co/KrVd6FGvAK
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) July 24, 2021
However, the media house has not posted any sort of apology for the evident mistake it made while posting its previous Tweet. Probably, Hindustan Times had premeditatedly attached the prefix only to whitewash the crime by the terrorist but craftily removed it after being called out. This prospect appears even more plausible considering Hindustan Times previous misconducts.
Here it becomes imperative to recollect how the media house had attempted to water down the Pulwama attack during its first anniversary, by humanizing the terrorist Adil Ahmed Dar. The Hindustan Times article written by habitual Pakistan lover Harinder Baweja wrote in detail about the suicide bomber’s apparent love for cricket. He sneakily added that the terrorist, who had called all Indians ‘cow-piss drinkers’, “always cheered for India”. Basically, through its report, HT had then almost implored its readers to sympathize with the family that has produced three terrorists thus far with the possibility of more joining terrorist ranks.
