The News Minute, a leftist-cum-Dravidian Stockist portal has given a secular spin to the horrendous crime where a man named Aftab Ameen Poonawalla slaughtered his live-in partner into 35 pieces.
Aftab strangled the 26-year-old Sharddha Walkar on 18 May 2022, following a heated argument as she had asked him to marry her. He then dismembered her body with a sharp weapon into 35 pieces and bought a fridge to store them. He then threw the butchered body parts at 18 different locations in Delhi over the next 18 days. To avoid being caught, he reportedly left the house in the wee hours carrying 1-2 body parts in a plastic bag and threw them in the forest.
In a statement, the Delhi Police on 14 November 2022 said that the Mehrauli Police has solved the six-month-old case and arrested Aftab.
The news of this incident has sent shockwaves across the nation. However, a few leftist media outlets have been trying to secularize the incident to hide the identity of the perpetrator.
Earlier, the Times of India which had initially publised a report with the title “Delhi’s interfaith love: Shraddha’s body cut into piece by Aftab“ subsequently changed it to “Man chops live-in partner into 35 pieces, dumps them in Delhi forest“.
Leftist portal The News Minute hid the name of the perpetrator in a bid to secularize the incident.
The portal’s Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran sharing an Indian Express article titled “A toxic and abusive relationship that ended in death” wrote on her Twitter “Shraddha continued their relationship as Aaftab emotionally blackmailed her and said he would die by suicide if she leaves him. The level of entitlement such men have”.
That being said, the leftist portal tried to fan communal flames by amplifying a petty college fight that happened at a nondescript town in Dakshin Kannada district.
The headline of this article read “Dakshina Kannada: Muslim man beaten up for speaking to Hindu woman classmate“.
In The News Minute article, it was alleged that one Mohammed Saneef was allegedly beaten up for talking to and befriending a Hindu classmate. The article did not bring in the angle of stalking or harassment. The police had mentioned it as a “love-related case”. On the other hand, TNM tried its best to link the students who had beaten Sanaf with a Hindu rights organization.
“An investigation is underway,” Dakshina Kannada SP Rishikesh Sonawane told TNM, adding that the accused do not belong to any organisation as such, the TNM article noted.
Shocking levels of hypocrisy in headlines by @thenewsminute. pic.twitter.com/t2tX8fRVdD
— The Common Swadeshi (@CommonSwadeshi) November 14, 2022
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