False reports were circulated on social media by Hindutva fanatics to target the Muslim community and spread hate by putting the entire blame for the Odisha accident on Muslims
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Railway authorities have busted a communally-loaded fake report claiming that a Muslim employee allegedly involved in the Odisha train accident was absconding from his abode after a Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) team interrogated him.
The false report was laid to rest after South Eastern Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Aditya Kumar Chaudhary, issued a clarification in this regard. It became necessary as the fake report was first splashed by a section of the mainstream media and it then was circulated widely on various social media platforms by Hindutva miscreants.
“A few media reports are coming in that a Bahanaga staff is absconding and missing. This is factually incorrect. The entire staff is present and part of the inquiry. They are appearing before the agency,” Chaudhary’s clarification said.
The clarifications came after a section of the visual media, including TV9 Bharatvarsh and News Nation, news agency IANS, the India TV portal, Firstpost, Swarajya, Kalinga TV, Wion and others claimed that CBI officials visited junior engineer Amir Khan’s rented accommodation in Soro but found it locked and the family went missing on Monday.
The CBI team had earlier questioned Khan and other railway staff over the incident.
These reports were being circulated on social media by Hindutva fanatics to target the Muslim community and spread hate by putting the entire blame for the Odisha accident on the minority community.
Those who spread the false report included some Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leaders.
Dr. B.L. Sreenivas Solanky, a leader of BJP’s youth wing in Tamil Nadu, posted the fake claim.
Arun Yadav, a BJP leader in Haryana, also shared the fake information on Twitter.
Mohammed Zubair, a social media influencer and fact-checker, said: “Almost every Influential Right Wing handle is celebrating while shifting the blame for Balasore Train accident to a “Muslim JE engineer” Amir Khan. Both Godi Media and Right Wing accounts have been trying their best to shift the blame from the Govt to a ‘Muslim’”.
Iyan Karthikeyan, a journalist, said: “The entire right wing ecosystem spread a false narrative that an Engineer named Amir Khan went in hiding to evade investigation and his house has been seized by CBI. Using this false information, the right-wing propaganda machine brought the Muslim angle yet again in Balasore train tragedy. Somehow they desperately want to pin this on the Muslims”.
This is another fake claim made to target the Muslim community by putting the blame for the accident in which 288 people were killed.
Earlier, some Hindutva propagandists were claiming that the accident happened on Friday because there is a mosque near the accident spot. But, it turned out that the structure which was called a ‘mosque’ is actually a temple.
