In his tweet, Majumder had shared a Mail Today story headlined: “Delhi CM Kejriwal leaves Ankit Saxena’s prayer meet after family demands Rs 1 crore compensation.” The story is based on an alleged viral video clip where Delhi Chief Minister Arvid Kejriwal can be seen leaving the prayer venue. However, the piece does not provide a link to the video.

While the story does not provide a quote from the Aam Aadmi Party, the story quotes BJP’s Manoj Tiwari as saying: “Denying compensation to Ankit, Kejriwal has shown that he is influenced by caste and religion. It is shocking to see the AAP government announcing hefty compensation for victims from Muslim community while the same government has kept quiet on the killing of Ankit and Tushar.”

Attaching a list of people who were compensated by the Delhi government along with the letter, Sharma pointed out that of the seven families of victims who were given Rs 1 crore, five were Hindus. Speaking to Newslaundry, Sharma also clarified that the compensation policy being referred to in the story is an “ex-gratia compensation given under the LG/CM Relief Fund”.

He said, “The government policy of compensation is for uniformed personnel who lose their lives while performing dangerous duties such as the police and fire brigade.” Sharma added: “Saxena’s death was an act of crime” but when it was found out that “there was no bread earner left in the family a sum of Rs 5 lakh was promised”.

Sharma also acknowledged that there were demands for more compensation made by some relatives, which he said: “could be looked into”. However, he added: “But it cannot be equated with [the government’s] compensation policy which is for completely different purposes.”

Newslaundry also reached out to Majumder for a response to Sharma’s allegations. However, he declined to comment.

On February 14, a day after Sharma’s letter, Mail Today carried a story titled: “AAP rubbishes BJP’s discrimination charges.” However, the story does not mention Sharma’s letter.

In his letter, Sharma has asked for an apology and Majumder’s removal as the newspaper’s editor.

This comes after reports of Majumder’s potential appointment as Chief Editor of Prasar Bharti.