Ankit Kumar Garg, a 31-year old teacher was shot dead on October 1 in Delhi. Soon after the incident, multiple news organisations reported that this was a case of honour killing. The basis of the reports was the accusation by the victim’s family that Ankit was killed by the family of the Muslim girl he was in a relationship with.
How media reported the incident
On October 2, Zee News reported the incident with the headline “अंकित को प्यार की सजा या हिंदू होने की सजा ?” (Ankit punished for love or for being Hindu?- translated). The report asked if religion was the cause of the deaths of Ankit Garg and Ankit Mishra. It may be reiterated that in February 2018, 23-year old Ankit Saxena was killed by the family of the girl he was in love with.
In fact, Zee News went so far as to broadcast a prime time show with the hashtag #MurderParSecularSannata and asked how many Ankits would be killed in the name of love, was the silence because his name was Ankit, and whether faith was bigger than love.
दिल्ली में फिर मारा गया अंकित
मज़हब के नाम पर कितने अंकित का मर्डर ?
नाम अंकित, इसलिए हत्या पर सन्नाटा ?
मोहब्बत से बड़ा मज़हब है ?#MurderParSecularSannata
11 AM @ZeeNews pic.twitter.com/KhraNTxfzg
— Zee News Hindi (@ZeeNewsHindi) October 2, 2018
News18‘s report of the incident was titled “Delhi teacher shot dead over ‘relationship’ with Muslim student”. The report referred to ‘sources’ to state that the Muslim woman and the victim wanted to get married but the girl’s brother opposed the union since they both belonged to different religions. The hashtag used by the channel to report the incident was #BulletForLove.
Aaj Tak too reported that Ankit was killed over a relationship with a Muslim girl. Another popular Hindi publication, Dainik Bhaskar too reported that Ankit was killed by the brother of the girl he was in love with, who belonged to another community. Times Now Hindi also reported on October 2 that Ankit was killed because he was in love with a Muslim girl. The report was titled, “दिल्ली: एक और ‘अंकित’ को उतारा मौत के घाट, मुस्लिम लड़की से करता था प्यार” (Delhi: One more Ankit killed, was in love with Muslim girl- translated). The Print reported “Delhi tuition teacher shot dead for ‘affair’ with Muslim student”. While the reportage by these news outlets did refer to the allegations made by the victim’s family, the presentation of the incident was misleading and provocative.
Dainik Bharat which is a fake news website was at its provocative best, reporting the incident with the title “ये है हिन्दू लड़का अंकित – मुस्लिम लड़की से दोस्ती पर उतार दिया मौत के घाट , न मीडिया न केजरीवाल ” (This is Hindu boy Ankit- killed for befriending a Muslim girl, no media no Kejriwal– translated).
BBC & NDTV’s reports on the incident
On the other hand, NDTV India‘s report was titled “दिल्ली में एक और ‘अंकित’ की हत्या, बहन ने कहा- दूसरे समुदाय की लड़की से था प्रेम-संबंध” (One more ‘Ankit’ killed in Delhi, sister says- he was in a love relationship with girl from another community– translated). The report clearly mentioned that the family of the victim suspected that his relationship was the cause. The title of BBC News Hindi‘s report was “प्रेस रिव्यू: फिर एक अंकित की हत्या, दूसरे धर्म में प्यार की सज़ा?” (Press Review: One more Ankit killed, punished for inter-faith love?- translated). The report qualified the honour killing theory with a question mark in the title. Interestingly, Times Nowreported that the sister of the victim has blamed the girl’s family for the murder, whereas we saw above that the Hindi version of Times Now had reported the incident in an inflammatory manner.
Manak Gupta, who is a senior anchor with the channel News24, tweeted on October 2 that Ankit was killed because he fell in love with a Muslim girl.
दिल्ली में एक और अंकित की हत्या…!!! वजह वही – मुस्लिम लड़की से प्रेम कर बैठा https://t.co/eqLyhfOayE
— Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) October 2, 2018
Journalist Richa Anirudh reiterated the same in her tweet; so did Vikas Saraswat who works with Swarajya and journalist Jagrati Shukla.
It may be noted that following the murder, the victim’s sister had alleged that he was killed in a case of honour killing.
Venom on social media
Parvesh Sahib Singh, who is a BJP MP from Delhi targeted Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for politicising the killing of Vivek Tiwari but not bothering about Ankit Garg.
दिल्ली के मालिक @ArvindKejriwal को विवेक तिवारी का धर्म पता चल गया क्योंकि वो यूपी के थे। अब जबकि अंकित की हत्या दिल्ली में उनके नाक के नीचे हुई है उनको न तो अंकित के धर्म का पता चल पा रहा है न ही समुदाय विशेष से ताल्लुक रखने वाले हत्यारे का !#AnkitSaxenhttps://t.co/NZTkIJV6UP
— Parvesh Sahib Singh (@p_sahibsingh) October 2, 2018
Harish Khurana, BJP Delhi spokesperson also targeted Kejriwal over the issue. Ravinder Gupta, General Secretary of BJP Delhi followed suit.
On social media, the usual suspects sought to exploit the ‘news’ and communalise …
