On Tuesday (September 12), a purported screenshot attributed to The Telegraph went viral on social media. It bore an uncanny resemblance to the front page of the Indian English daily and mocked the Mamata Banerjee-led-TMC government for arresting Debmalya Bagchi.
“Our Group Journalist has been arrested by West Bengal police for reporting illegal business of Hooch Wine,” the alleged copy of The Telegraph read in bold.
The subheading of the purported newspaper stated, “Here is our editor’s message to the WB Govt – Jahapanah Tusi great ho, Tofah Kabool karo (Emperor, you are great. Please accept our gift). It is a popular dialogue from the highly acclaimed movie ‘3 idiots.’
The message was accompanied with a cartoon of Homer Jay Simpson, showing his posterior, to the West Bengal government. Homer is the main protagonist of the US-based animated sitcom, The Simpsons. The graphic is popularly called ‘Kiss my yellow butt.’
In order to ascertain the truth, Opindia checked the e-paper of The Telegraph and all its editions (Kolkata, North Bengal and South Bengal) for September 12, 2023. We found no such cartoon of Homer Simpson ‘gifting’ his ass to the West Bengal government.
Moreover, there was no mention of the arrest of Anandabazar Patrika (ABP group that publishes The Telegraph) correspondent, Debmalya Bagchi, on the front page. Instead, the English daily pointed out the case of journalists being ‘slapped with FIR’ in Manipur.
Nonetheless, Manipur remained the featured story of the West Bengal-based paper. The arrest of its own journalist by the Trinamool Congress government found no mention in its main headlines.
Opindia also cross-verified The Telegraph e-paper for Monday (September 11) but found no such message or cartoon from the Editor of the newspaper. We thus concluded that the purported screenshot attributed to The Telegraph was fake.
Arrest of journalist in West Bengal
On September 6 this year, the 33-year-old Debmalya Bagchi was arrested by the West Bengal police. The development came days after he wrote critical articles about hooch traders operating in the TMC-controlled Sanjoal area in Kharagpur Municipality.
He was booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 354B (assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe), 509 (uttering any word or making any gesture intended to insult modesty of a woman), provisions of SC/ST Act.
A police complaint was filed against Bagchi by his Dalit neighbour on August 27, 2023, for allegedly hurling casteist remarks and assaulting her outside her residence.
It must be mentioned that the Anandabazar Patrika correspondent had written about the laxity of the local administration towards hooch trade and the harassment of the informants by those involved in the production of bootleg liquor.
