Rajdeep Sardesai avoids naming accused Zubair Ahmad while discussing rape of 70-year-old woman in Pahalgam, resorts to whataboutery after being called out
On Monday (30th June), ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai stirred the hornet’s nest after he deliberately avoided naming the accused in the heinous rape case of a 70-year-old widowed woman in Pahalgam.
For the unversed, the victim was raped by one Zubair Ahmed during her family trip to Jammu and Kashmir. Zubair unlawfully entered the hotel room of the 70-year-old woman when she was alone.
He gagged the victim’s mouth with a blanket and then raped her. Zubair managed to flee the crime scene using the window of her room. The brutal nature of the rape left the elderly woman with severe injuries and pain for several days.
Rajdeep Sardesai posted a tweet, mentioning details of the incident and even included an excerpt of the court verdict denying bail.
However, the controversial ‘journalist’ omitted a key information from the tweet – The name of the man who committed the heinous crime.
This raised concerns among the netizens, who questioned Rajdeep Sardesai for leaving out the name of the accused. Instead of admitting his mistake, the propagandist resorted to brazen whataboutery.
In a tweet posted on Tuesday (1st July), Rajdeep Sardesai. “Semi-literate Right wing Hindu twitter army is agitated that I didn’t name rape accused in Kashmir case. His name is ZUBAIR BHAT. Note: name of prime accused in Kolkata case MONOJIT MISHRA. Note also: those arrested in Tamil Nadu dowry suicide case are husband Kavin Kumar, father-in-law Eswaramoorthy, and mother-in-law Chithradevi.”
The controversial ‘journalist’ couldn’t even speak about the rape case involving Zubair Ahmed without referencing to other cases. This gives us a hint that the ommission of the accused’s name was deliberate.
He did not conclude his tweet without going on a rant about how ‘crimes against women’ have nothing to do with religion, effectively ignoring cultural prejudices and religious outlook that contribute to atrocities against women.
“Moral of the story: crimes against women aren’t about religious identity of accused as much as a BRUTAL crime. Criminals exist in EVERY community. Focus on JUSTICE for victim, not religious identity of accused,” he claimed.
Earlier on 27th June, Rajdeep Sardesai courted controversy by comparing the Jagannath Dham in Puri town of Odisha to the newly inaugurated Jagannath temple in West Bengal’s Digha.
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