Misleading information surrounding a case from Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district ahead of this year’s Deepawali was propagated by prominent media outlets. Liberal sources seized upon the story, sensationalising a crime involving a Muslim man in connection with the Hindu festival. Headlines from these reports claimed, “Husband lost wife in gambling; brother took on the role of Krishna to protect; another Mahabharat in Amroha.”
Contrary to these assertions, Organiser conducted an investigation and found that the accused husband in this case is a Muslim man. His wife filed a case against him and his family for dowry, dispelling the previously circulated narrative. The FIR (First Information Report), numbered 591/2023, was registered at the Didoli police station area of Amroha district on November 9, 2023.
The victim, identified as Rukhsar Parveen, lost by her husband in gamble, Sohail Alam, recounted her ordeal to the police. She disclosed that she had been married to Sohail for three years, following Muslim rituals, and had since endured persistent dowry-related harassment from him and his family. Rukhsar, a mother of two, detailed instances of being thrown out of their house multiple times. Recently, her husband lost her in a gambling incident in Delhi, leading her to experience further abuse. Seeking justice, she named all her in-laws as accused in the FIR, invoking sections 498-A, 323, 354(a) of the Indian Penal Code, along with sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Law.
Significantly, this news gained widespread attention on various prominent media platforms, exhibiting an apparent effort to vilify Hindus and their cherished rituals and practices on the auspicious day of Dhanteras during this Diwali.
On November 10, as Hindus around the world celebrated Dhanteras, the inaugural day of Diwali, News 24 Hindi published a post detailing how a husband lost his wife in a gambling incident on Dhanteras. However, the media outlet conveniently omitted the name of the perpetrator, identified as Sohail Ahmed in this case. Diwali became a pretext to spotlight a crime committed by a Muslim individual.
News24 shared a post on X with a caption in Hindi, roughly translated to, “Husband mortgages wife after losing in gambling. The incident took place in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. The woman’s brother came and saved her, case registered.”
Accompanying the caption, News24 Hindi, subtly suggesting that the crime was committed by a Hindu, posted a picture of a woman adorned in a saree and jewelry. In a bid to emphasise that the alleged crime was carried out by a Hindu during the Hindu festival, the media outlet utilised hashtags like #viralstory, #crime, and #Dhanteras.
Zee News Hindi took an additional step by employing a derisive headline to narrate the incident, tarnishing the Mahabharata, one of the two revered Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism. The headline, in Hindi, roughly translates to “Another Mahabharata in Amroha. Husband loses wife in gambling.”
Several other vernacular media outlets, including Amarujala, Jagran, and TV9 Hindi, without verifying details, also leveraged the Hindu festival to highlight the crime, which was, in fact, committed by a Muslim.
The misleading headlines disseminated by these media houses provided an opportunity for Islamists and leftist liberals to vilify Hindus and their festivals. While sharing the News24 post, Islamic fundamentalist Ali Sohrab took a dig at Hindus by using the hashtag #Sanskriti.
Similarly, Deepa Samrat mocked Hindus by captioning her post “Sanskari Samaj.” Meanwhile, utilising the same post, Mushtaq Ahmed praised the virtues of his faith and declared that alcohol and gambling are forbidden in Islam, subtly characterising Hindus as drinkers and gamblers. Another Islamist user, Sajid Ali, seized the opportunity to target Sanatan Dharma as a whole.
The reality, however, starkly contrasts with the narrative propagated by the ‘liberal-secular’ media. Given that the incident coincidentally occurred on Dhanteras, the media promptly engaged in their customary practices of criticising it, associating it with the crime. What these media outlets conveniently concealed in their attempt to vilify Hindus and their festival is that it was a Muslim man, not a Hindu, who had pledged his wife after losing in gambling.
On November 11, the Amroha police took to X to debunk the falsehood propagated by News24 Hindi. They clarified that Sohail Ahmed was the perpetrator. In fact, his wife had lodged a complaint with the Amroha police, accusing her husband and in-laws of subjecting her to dowry-related harassment.
महोदय उपरोक्त प्रकरण के सम्बन्ध मे कृप्या अवगत कराना है कि आवेदिका की तहरीर के आधार पर उसके पति सुहैल अहमद एवं अन्य ससुरालीजन पर दहेज उत्पीडन व अन्य सुसंगत धाराओ मे अभियोग पंजीकृत है तथा अग्रिम विधिक कार्यवाही प्रचलित है ।
— Amroha Police (@amrohapolice) November 11, 2023
