NDTV and its owner Prannoy Roy are facing widespread condemnation after the media group was accused of demonising a lynch victim in BJP-ruled Tripura. The unidentified victim was beaten to death by villagers in Tripura, which has been on the boil following coordinated attacks on the properties belonging to Muslims and their places of worship in recent weeks.
NDTV took to Twitter to flash, “#JustIn | Suspected Bangladeshi cattle smuggler lynched to death in #Tripura.”
According to reports, the Bangladeshi angle was coined by those, who were involved in the gruesome act of lynching. Quoting the ‘investigating officer’, News18 reported that ‘locals’ said that the victim of the latest act of lynching was a Bangladeshi national.
NDTV, in its report, claimed that the Tripura police had ‘found a mobile phone and Bangladesh’s currency in his possession.’
Soon, NDTV and its owner Prannoy Roy began to face brutal criticism from netizens. Many wondered if NDTV too had decided to abandon its erstwhile objective journalism to please the ruling BJP. Others felt that the decision to demonise a suspected Muslim victim by NDTV was primarily to avoid being slapped with sedition charges by the Tripura Police.
With love to fans of NDTV! Since the channel can't say Muslim for the fear of UAPA, let's demonise victim with 'suspected Bangladeshi' tag. pic.twitter.com/XGFSqBsDkZ
— Rifat Jawaid (@RifatJawaid) November 6, 2021
Stop character assasination of the victim by calling him “Suspected Bangladeshi”. Call out the criminals who killed him. Stop being a coward.
— AjayBeast (@TruthSeeker094) November 6, 2021
Monish beta, Muslim is too middle class.
**suspected Bangladeshi cattle-smuggler** bolo pic.twitter.com/vb6iOSCgPD
— Amit (@amit_tushar) November 6, 2021
By writing such tweets from @Ndtv handle..@prannoyroyndtv is trying justify "Sanghi Penal Code of Suspicion" ..
What is "Suspected Bangladeshi Cattle Smuggler", Prannoy?
How do you justify "Lynching to Death" on mere suspicion?
— Shuvankar Mukherjee (@shuvankr) November 6, 2021
And someone should study how the phrase “Suspected Bangladeshi” travelled from Assam to Tripura. https://t.co/KlF8XuO7Lz
— Abdul Kalam Azad (@abdulkazad) November 6, 2021
Suspected Bangladeshi cattle smuggler? Is this the same #NDTV @PrannoyRoyNDTV you have also sold your soul? ????
— Yeh mera India ???????? (@sr_dijam) November 6, 2021
The Tripura Police recently booked four Supreme Court lawyers for sharing social media posts on the recent communal violence against Muslims in the state. They were identified as Estesham Hashmi, lawyer of the Supreme Court of India, advocate Amit Srivastav, Coodinator of Lawyers for Democracy, NCHRO national secretary Ansar Indori and PUCL member Mukesh Kumar.
Superintendent of Police of West Tripura district Manik Das had told news agency PTI, “A group of Supreme Court lawyers visited Tripura on Tuesday last and after their visit we noticed that several posts were made in social media expressing their discontent regarding the recent communal incidents. Police has registered a case and wants to know if the posts were made by them or were fake posts.”
The Tripura Police had also booked as many as 102 social media handles for sharing posts related to the recent anti-Muslim violence in the state.