Deepak Chaurasia, consulting editor of News Nation has been slapped with a legal notice for his tweet identifying two Muslim men as attackers in Kerala pregnant elephant killing case. The notice calls his act deliberate, mischievous and motivated by the ill intention of whipping up Muslim sentiments.
The legal notice has been issued by Dr. Farrukh Khan.
It’s important to note that Chaurasia has more than 408,000 followers on Twitter, and with such a wide reach, implication of a communally charged fake news can be serious. The tweet now deleted was done in Hindi and its translation could be read as: “Two people have been arrested in Kerala’s pregnant elephant’s murder case, Amajath Ali and Tamim Saikh, strict action should be taken against these accused.” Tweet garnered several thousand retweets and likes before Chaurasiya deleted it after he was called out for wrong facts.
Dr. Khan raised the issue how his tweet served as a fodder of an already vicious campaign to give communal color to the incident.
“Many users claimed that the death of pregnant elephant was planned by these two and with this the Kerala’s Palakkad was turned into yet another issue to target the Indian Muslim population,” said Dr.Khan.
Dr.Khan told Newsd that Deepak Chaurasia targeted the Muslim community and is spreading fake news through his social media platform. He further added that this is not the first time that he has been trying to defame the community but with his tweet his tone was symbolizing that all the mess in this country is created by Muslims.
Dr Khan alleged that Chaurasia’s journalism revolves around demeaning the image of Muslim community in the society.
One person, identified as Wilson, was arrested on Friday, 5 June, in connection with the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala. The case caused a lot of outrage as several handles on Twitter tried to give it a communal turn.
Palakkad SP G Siva Vikram had said that other than Wilson, no individual was arrested or detained. Responding to the social media posts about the arrest of two individuals – Mohammad Amzath Ali and Thamim Shaikh – Vikram had called it “fake news”.
