Newslaundry quietly removes video where it called rape of minor girl by 65-year-old Usman as ‘affair’ and ‘small incident’, cites ‘apology’ only after social media outrage
On 4th May, propaganda news portal Newslaundry quietly made private the video in which its editor-in-chief, Raman Kirpal, had referred to the rape of a 12-year-old minor girl by a 65-year-old Muslim man, Muhammad Usman, as an affair and a “small incident”. Following the social media outrage, Kirpal and Newslaundry issued apologies on X.
In his post on X, Raman Kirpal said, “I want to sincerely apologise for making an inadvertent mistake in describing the Nainital incident involving the sexual assault of a minor. I deeply regret my words. As an editor and journalist, it was my responsibility to be fully informed before making any statements.” Archived link of the post can be seen here.
On the other hand, Newslaundry wrote, “We want to issue a sincere apology regarding how our Editor-in-Chief, Raman Kirpal, described the recent incident in Nainital involving the sexual assault of a minor.
In our earlier video, our editor wrongly described the incident as “small” and referred to it as “an affair.” This was a factual error. We deeply regret it.
As editors, we should have had full knowledge of what had happened before commenting on the matter.
The responsibility to verify and be cautious with our words rests squarely with us.
We take full responsibility for this lapse. We have since re-uploaded the video after removing the inaccurate sentence. We stand by the need for sensitive and factual journalism, especially in situations where misinformation and communal tensions can cause real harm.” Archived link of the post can be seen here.
A similar apology was added to the newly-uploaded video as well.
Source: Newslaundry/YouTube
Newslaundry downplayed the rape of minor Hindu girl by 65-year-old Muhammad Usman as ‘affair’ and ‘small incident’
Earlier, OpIndia reported that Newslaundry had downplayed the rape of minor Hindu girl by 65-year0old Muhammad Usman as “affair” and “small incident”. In its 535th episode of podcast titled ‘Hafta’, Kirpal, who was one of the panellists, cunningly tried to downplay the recent incident of the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nainital by a 65-year-old Muslim man, Muhammad Usman, as a ‘Muslim boy having an affair with a Hindu girl’. He went on to describe the situation as one where Muslims were being targeted because of the incident in Nainital, Uttarakhand, and further claimed that Hindus attacked them only because there was an affair between a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl.
Kirpal called it a ‘small incident’ and stated, “In Nainital yesterday, one boy had an affair, or some problem, with a girl. They started beating the Muslims. They shut down those shops, very prominent shops in Nainital. They beat them up, and today the entire place is closed. They are going against the Muslims.” Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande agreed to the statement.
He further added, “So, they are isolating. And all these incidents have been happening, and Modi has never spoken about it.”
Tensions erupted in Nainital as a 65-year-old Muslim man raped a 12-year-old minor Hindu girl
On 30 April, the Nainital Police arrested a 65-year-old contractor with the Nainital Public Works Department, Muhammad Usman, for raping a 12-year-old minor Hindu girl. The victim had informed her family about the incident after which the family filed a police complaint. Usman was booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the POCSO Act.
The incident took place on 12 April when the victim had gone to the local market to buy some groceries. The accused allegedly lured her by offering Rs 200 and took her to his house. He raped her in his garage and threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone. Scared by the threat, the victim did not tell her family.
The victim stopped going to school and the family noticed changes in her behaviour. She refused to talk to anyone. The family called her maternal grandmother, but the victim did not tell anyone about the rape and the threats.
Eventually, both sisters stopped going to school, and their maternal grandmother got their names removed from school on 16 April. Finally, she told her mother what happened, and then a complaint was filed against Usman at the Mallital Police Station.
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