The Bengal police on Tuesday flagged a tweet by India Today executive editor Deep Halder about post-poll violence in the state as “fake news”. Halder had tweeted that BJP’s women poll agents were “gangraped” and “many” were molested in Birbhum district, attributing the allegation to the Bengal BJP.
#FakeNewsAlert pic.twitter.com/gSAYkNPGb2
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) May 4, 2021
Following this, the editor tweeted that he had confirmed with the police superintendent that reports of gangrape were fake, and deleted his fake news tweet.
EC-appointed Birbhum district SP Nagendra Tripathi has said reports of gangr@pe in Birbhum are fake. So I am deleting my tweet where I had quoted Bengal BJP's allegation of the r@pe of two party workers.
— Deep Halder (@deepscribble) May 4, 2021
Halder was called out by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien, who cautioned him to never do such a thing again.
Don’t EVER try this again. You or anyone else. This time caught red-handed. Filthy RUMOR MONGER and Bengal hater. Your publishers @HarperCollinsIN and your employers @indiatoday should be ashamed of you. https://t.co/xmVIevP2jC
— Derek O'Brien | ডেরেক ও'ব্রায়েন (@derekobrienmp) May 4, 2021
Since the assembly election result was declared on Monday, Bengal has reported several incidents of political violence. The BJP has accused the Trinamool of allegedly killing six of its people and ransacking the houses and offices of its members. The governing party has rejected the allegations and claimed that its own members were killed in the clashes. Other parties such as the CPIM and the ISF have also reported violence against their members.
Twitter is awash with politicians, journalists and other users reporting alleged incidents of violence in Bengal.
Halder’s tweet being flagged is the second time in recent days that India Today has drawn flak for putting out “fake news”. On Sunday, the Shiv Sena had called out India Today editorial director Rahul Kanwal for "cooking up a lie" when he said "Sena goons" had threatened Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla and demanded vaccines.
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