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This year can surely go down in Indian political history as a year of ‘protests and agitations’. We saw several protests in various parts of the country cutting across issues. One of the main agitations was for ‘reservations for upper classes. Hardik Patel led the Patidar agitation, in Gujarat, demanding reservation for the upper caste Patels. Hardik Patel received support from both politicians and media who saw this as a setback for PM Modi in his home state Gujarat. This kind of had a ripple effect and encouraged the Jats of Haryana to renew their agitation. They recommenced their protests in Haryana where BJP had been elected to power for the first time.

BJP in general and PM Modi in particular has never been a favourite with the media. There are a number of media houses that never lose a chance to malign PM and run ‘Blow to Modi’ reports. A few days later the protests turned violent leading to destruction of Government property as well. Around 30 people lost their lives in retaliatory police action. Amidst all the chaos and rioting, reports of women being raped at Murthal, on the night of 22nd February, surfaced. The police, however, dismissed claims of rape as mere rumours. The issue came into the limelight when Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted about it and the media wasted no time in turning it into national headlines.

The Tribune and Firstpost.com published explosive reports claiming rapes occurred during Jat agitations. The former claimed that there were eyewitnesses to the entire incident while the latter went one step ahead and claimed to have the victim’s narrative. Both the dhaba owner and truck driver, quoted as eyewitnesses by The Tribune, denied the very occurrence of rapes claiming that it was media persons who had asked them to make such allegations. Firstpost reporter Tarique Anwar filed a report claiming it to be the version of the victim who was allegedly gang-raped. It even quoted her family members and police officers. The report appeared on their website on 29th February.

Punjab & Haryana HC permits prosecution of journalist accused of fabricating evidence in Murthal gang rape allegation during Jat quota stir — Times of India (@timesofindia) December 3, 2016

Considering the gravity of the situation and not wanting to take any chances, Haryana Government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the alleged incident. It has now come to light that Amicus Curiae has recommended the prosecution of a journalist for fabricating evidence in Murthal gang-rape case.

Tariq Anwar,a journalist,will be prosecuted for publishing fake Murthal gang rape story. He admitted in court that everything was fake. — Prashant P. Umrao (@ippatel) December 3, 2016

Mr @sardesairajdeep, some of your friends created the Murthal gang rape fake story & you highlighted it….now ur turn to answer the truth. pic.twitter.com/S5QOUrfNjz — Oxomiya Jiyori?? (@SouleFacts) December 3, 2016

The Amicus Curiae submitted his report, which included the suggestion for prosecution of a journalist, to Punjab and Haryana court. A facebook post, by a lawyer, claimed that the journalist was Firstpost’s Tarique Anwar. Investigations revealed that Tarique had recorded his friend’s voice and passed it off as that of the victim’s mother. Besides, he was certainly of dubious character and involved in malpractices. Firstpost showed him the door after internal inquiry revealed that he had cooked up stories in which he put in imaginary quotes by the SP, who later denied having spoken to Tarique.

Journalists that made up stories about Murthal gang rape are destroying the profession of journalism, fully agree with our liberal friend. pic.twitter.com/q1nT7ZUkCL — Liberal Of New Delhi (@LiberalsOfDelhi) December 3, 2016

This certainly raises questions on the standards of journalism. What is scarier is that despite such unethical behavior Tarique could find a job with the Time group. Amicus Curiae has asked for the prosecution of Tarique Anwar for misleading the court and there is enough evidence which suggests that Tarique himself admitted to having given false evidence. At last law seems to be catching up with so called ‘journalists’ who hardly have any morality and ethics left in them.

Latha Iyer