Zee News Runs Misleading Story On Rahul Gandhi, Apologizes Later

Recently in Rajasthan’s Udaipur, two Muslim men brutally murdered a tailor named Kanhaiya Lal by entering his shop. Police arrested both the accused from Bhim of Rajsamand district. The Rajasthan Police has identified both the accused as Mohammad Riaz and Ghaus Mohammad. The accused recorded this heinous crime on camera and called it a revenge for Nupur Sharma’s statement. Suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma had made a controversial comment on Prophet Mohammad during a debate on TV show.

Hindi news channel Zee News ran an edited video of Rahul Gandhi from his Wayanad visit on live TV on July 1, claiming that he has called the accused in the Udaipur killing ‘kids’. The channel also tweeted the same but later deleted it. The show’s Anchor Rohit Ranjan is heard saying, “Every section of the country is directly saying this vandalism is wrong and it should be punished severely. Rahul Gandhi is the biggest leader of the opposition and his words matter a lot in front of everyone. But if Rahul Gandhi is calling those accused as children, then think what message does this send… Can those who brutally killed Kanhaiya be called kids?”

Watch the Zee News story on Rahul Gandhi here: 

BJP leaders, journalists, and many social media users, while sharing this video of Rahul Gandhi, slammed  him. Most of the people made this claim while sharing the video of Zee News.

Subrata Pathak, BJP MP from Kannauj, former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajvardhan Rathore, MLA from Bijnor’s Chandpur Assembly Kamlesh Saini were amongst many who shared this video with misleading claim that Rahul Gandhi called Udaipur killers ‘kids’.

However, turns out, the Rahul Gandhi’s video byte that the Zee News used to claim that he called Udaipur killers ‘kids’, was actually in different context.

The video in question is from Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to his parliamentary constituency Wayanad. Rahul Gandhi was questioned by reporters on the recent vandalization of his office in Wayanad by SFI activists. Responding to the same, Mr Gandhi said that the boys who vandalized his office are ‘kids’. He further said that this is not good, the boys have acted irresponsibly.

Watch the real video here:

After Zee News was called out of Congress supporters and others on social media, the channel issued an apology calling it a “human error”.

Rohit Ranjan, the anchor of the show, took to Twitter and wrote in Hindi: “Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team is apologetic, we apologize for it.”

कल हमारे शो DNA में राहुल गांधी का बयान उदयपुर की घटना से जोड़ कर ग़लत संदर्भ में चल गया था, ये एक मानवीय भूल थी जिसके लिए हमारी टीम क्षमाप्रार्थी हैं, हम इसके लिए खेद जताते हैं pic.twitter.com/YGs7kfbKKi

— Rohit Ranjan (@irohitr) July 2, 2022