Note: Later reports suggests the main accused’s name is Parvez Gujjar and not Parvesh Gujjar.
The Uttar Pradesh Government has initiated action against Twitter for failing to take down tweets that spread misinformation about a crime in the state, Times Now has reported. An FIR has been lodged against the social media platform in connection with the same.
In the incident, a Muslim man was beaten up by a few individuals, however, motivated actors gave a communal colour to the crime by saying that he was beaten for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram. The case against Twitter was registered for failing to take any action against the manipulated media. According to Times Now, a case was registered against 8 others as well.
Since the news broke out, Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair announced that he had deleted the videos he had posted related to the matter.
I’ve deleted the videos that I had posted. The victim’s version of him being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” at this point in time do not seem to add up based on my conversations with police authorities and other journalists reporting on this issue. https://t.co/cof5bjv3I4
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) June 15, 2021
The Ghaziabad Police, after investigating the matter, has debunked the fictional narrative spread with the intent to spark communal tensions. The Ghaziabad Police had said that the ‘victim’ Abdul Samad Saifi was allegedly beaten up by people known to him after an occult amulet he had prepared for one of them did not work as per them. Accused Parvesh Gujjar, Adil and Kallu were arrested on Monday while efforts were on to nab Arif and Poli.
The religion of some of the accused were enough to prove that it was not a communal crime as ‘liberals’ and Islamist apologists on social media had alleged. However, hours after the crime ws debunked, Rahul Gandhi continued to peddle the fictional narrative.
Apart from Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who initially peddled the fake hate crime narrative, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi too jumped into the issue to spread fake news. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath slammed him for the same and told him to stop his attempts to humiliate and slander the people of the state.
Yogi Adityanath’s media advisor Mrityunjay Kumar also demanded strict action against Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha for spreading fake news.
Alleged fact checkers @zoo_bear and @free_thinker have never been independent fact checkers, there job is to spread fake news against the govt and defend non-BJP ruled govt. They have on purpose spread fake news several times. Strict action should be taken against them @Uppolice
— Mrityunjay Kumar (@MrityunjayUP) June 16, 2021
He said that they have on purpose spread fake news several times and strict action should be taken against them.
Note: The article has been updated with Kumar’s tweet.
