Will not attend Iftaar hosted by Nitish because of Waqf stance: Muslim body in Bihar
Patna, Mar 22 (PTI): A prominent Muslim body in Bihar on Saturday announced that it was turning down Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's invitation for 'Iftaar', in protest against his "support" for Waqf Bill.
The Imarat Shariah, which claims to have followers across Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, shared a copy of the letter in response to the invitation for the 'Iftaar' that is to be held at chief minister's residence on Sunday.
The letter says, "A decision has been taken not to attend the government (sarkaari) Iftaar on March 23.....this decision has been taken in view of your support for the Waqf Bill, which threatens to worsen economic and educational backwardness of Muslims".
"You rose to power promising a secular (dharm-nirapeksh) rule in which minorities' rights were protected. But your alliance with the BJP and your support for a legislation that is unconstitutional and illogical, militates against your stated commitments", alleged the Imarat Shariah.
Describing the Iftaar organised by the chief minister as "tokenism", the Imarat Shariah added, "Your government's indifference towards concerns of Muslims render meaningless such formal gatherings".
There was no immediate response to the development from Kumar or his party JD(U), which has always banked on a slice of Muslim votes, cashing in on "secular" credentials of the leader.
The party shares power with the BJP at the Centre as well as the state, where assembly polls are due later this year.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
