On 29 Sep 2017 Mumbai was struck by a horrible tragedy that saw 22 people dying following a stampede at the Elphinstone Road station. By nature, humans generally come forward to help people in need and the same happened on that day too. The local people rushed around to help people trapped in stampede by giving all the help that was practically possible at that point of time till the official rescue team of police, medical service fire fighters etc. could take over. Other people who could not join in the efforts spread the news about the incident by clicking photos and videos of the tragic incident on social media. News channels started telecasting the incident.

In all this there was some journalist who was ready to stoop to lowest level just to get attention and cheap clicks by writing shocking headlines at the cost of reputation of good humans. One such example came from a news agency called THE HINDU. The headline of their article was “How can someone molest a girl fighting for life and asking for help,?” #ElphinstoneStampede

The journalist who wrote this shoddy article went on to call b****d to the man she was painting as molester.

I felt horrible when I read this headline and also the remarks in reply to that tweet by @the_hindu. Many people blindly believed the headline to be true and were cursing the man left right and centre. Some even went to the extent of demanding his castration. Some talked of the pathetic state of the society etc.

But being used to seeing fake news in the mainstream media I decided to check the reality. I started searching the videos of the incident on social media and came across videos from another angle that showed the reality. The person alleged as molester by the newspaper was actually trying to help and rescue the woman. He was standing on one foot and supporting the upper body of the woman on his thigh to prevent her from dangling from the staircase of the bridge. Her legs were painfully stuck along the railing and she could not move her lower body at all.

The journalist and newspaper had stooped to low level of journalism by labelling a Good Samaritan as a molester. But luckily there were some people who could see through this ploy of attention grabbing headline and they started responding with reasons and videos refuting the crass article of THE HINDU.

Amit Deshpande @antidespodent was one of the first people to object THE HINDU article

People questioned – Do you mean the rescuer should have called National commission of Women instead and waited?

After the seeing the reality many on social media reacted demanding apology and sacking of the journalist.

One such user reminded THE HINDU that – Editor of @THMumbai should know – most Liverpudlians TILL THIS DAY boycott @TheSun for publishing the fake 1989 Hillsborough Disaster story.

Editor of @THMumbai should know – most Liverpudlians TILL THIS DAY boycott @TheSun for publishing the fake 1989 Hillsborough Disaster story. pic.twitter.com/fOibFDxBA3 — Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) October 2, 2017

Even other websites started showing that the claims by THE HINDU were questionable and baseless.

OpinIndia said – Social media questions The Hindu’s claims of Elphinstone stampede victim’s molestation story. http://www.opindia.com/?p=52926

Indian Express mentioned – Mumbai stampede: Police find allegations of molestation untrue, say bystander’s intention was to save victim. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/mumbai-stampede-police-find-allegations-of-molestation-untrue-say-bystanders-intention-was-to-save-victim-elphinstone-road-railway-4872783/

People used tags #SackVedikaChaubey , #SackVedika etc to show their disgust over the irresponsible journalism. Finally seeing that the issue was snowballing, THE HINDU issued an apology.

The journalist too tweeted an apology as even after apology by the publication demand to sack her kept on growing.

I am not sure whether the journalist has been sacked for such misadventure with life and the reputation of a good person who helped victims of tragedy. But every person on social media deserves a congratulation for exposing shoddy journalism of THE HINDU and building up pressure to save the reputation of a good person who was trying to help a victim.