Sabrang India has earlier published a similar investigative report highlight how imposters pose as Muslims to mislead the authorities, here’s another.
A report recently revealed that two men used fake email addresses with the name of Zubair Khan and Alam Ansari and cited themselves as members of ISI who wanted to blow up the Ram Mandir in UP! The men were arrested on January 3, 2024, reports a story by Scroll. The threat was reportedly issued by two men named Omprakash Mishra and Tahar Singh, who created fake mail IDs in the name of Muslims. The crime did not happen in isolation. While these imposters were arrested as the investigation received wide publicity on social media, detailed inquiries revealed that the culprit who conspired to this falsification plot was actually a right-wing man named Devendra Tiwari. Tiwari also runs an organisation called Bharatiya Kisan Manch and Bhartiya Gau Seva Parishad and calls himself a cow protector (Gau Rakshak). Furthermore, Tiwari is also seen to have posted his pictures with Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister (CM), Yogi Adityanath on social media.
According to The Observer Post, an official statement about Tiwari was released stating, “Devendra Tewari, who has several cases against him in Manak Nagar, Ashiyana, Banthra, Gautam Palli, and Alambagh police stations in Lucknow, had told the arrested men to post threats on social media. Tewari runs a college in the Alambagh area named Indian Institute Paramedical Sciences, and he has an office there.”
जिन दो आरोपियों ओमप्रकाश मिश्रा और तहर सिंह ने जुबैर खान और आलम अंसारी के नाम से फर्जी मेल आईडी बनाकर ISI का हवाला देते हुए राम मंदिर, मुख्य्मंत्री योगी आदित्यनाथ और एसटीएफ चीफ अमिताभ यश को बम से उड़ाने की धमकी के मामले में गिरफ्तार किया गया था,
इनमें से एक तहर सिंह की काफी… pic.twitter.com/R5GNOWM7xR
— Adnan Miyan (@AdnanMiyan37546) January 4, 2024
This is not an isolated event. A disturbing trend has recently emerged where right-wing online users –with a free pass and impunity from the ruling regime dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — have been openly resorting to criminal activities and falsely trying to implicate Muslims in order to propagate their own hateful, political agenda. Various cases of people adopting false Muslim identities via online identities or adopting visible markers of Islam as a disguise to commit crimes have surfaced, leading to an alarming increase in Islamophobia in India. This article explores the dangerous modus operandi employed by these criminals and the grave repercussions of their actions, on the broader horizon of communal harmony. Sabrang India had earlier covered this article in November, 2023.
Several instances have also come to light where people have committed crimes and then have deliberately adopting a false Muslim identity to divert investigation and mislead authorities. These incidents include the case of Kanpur, where the husband of a tuition teacher reportedly killed a teenager who came to study at their place. The man, furthermore, falsely implicated the victim. He made use of religious phrases like “Allah hu Akbar” in a ransom letter in an order to divert the investigation. In another incident in Kerala, shockingly, an Indian Army soldier gave a false statement to the police, alleging an attack by a group of six people who painted the letters “PFI” on his back. PFI, Popular Front of India, is now an organisation that has been declared as illegal. The police in turn, upon discovery of the forgery, proceed to take the army man and his friend in custody for giving false statements to authorities.
Sabrang India’s November article highlighted these incidents. One particularly insidious incident was featured in the article from West Bengal, where individuals associated with the BJP engaged in stone-pelting during the Anti-CAA movement while wearing skull caps and lungi. However, it was soon discovered that these were actually people reportedly related to the BJP. Similar incidents have been found in Kanpur, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala as well.
The role of the media
Experts have also raised concerns about how the media also amplifies focus on the identity of the accused or suspect in these cases if the suspected culprit is a Muslim. This is a measure that leads to intensifying Islamophobia in an already communally polarised environment. Even when the accused is not Muslim and is unknown, news outlets often try to pass the blame onto Muslims using larger Islamophobic tropes and thus further contribute to the stigmatisation of the entire community.
In the recent Kerala blasts case that took place at Jehovah’s Witness Thalamassary, Kochi on October 29, 2023, it was evident that the media was keen to portray the perpetrator as a Muslim – even after he released a confession. There seemed to be a decided intent to portray the blast as motivated by communal intentions. Right-wing trolls flocked the social media as if on cue to post about Muslims being the culprit despite the suspect having surrendered himself to the police.
Journalist and anchor Ravish Kumar also covered these criminal trends online. Kumar says that when these incidents successfully hoodwink people into believing crimes are being committed by Muslims, it increases the hatred against Muslims in the general populace. Thus the deliberate attempt to implicate Muslims in crimes not only undermines the justice system but also poses a severe threat to communal harmony. The broader impact of these actions is the perpetuation of stereotypes, reinforcing negative perceptions about an entire religious community. This not only hampers social cohesion but also creates an environment where innocent individuals may face unwarranted backlash. Furthermore, the speed at which misinformation spreads in the digital age exacerbates the impact of these actions has the tendency to result in real-life consequences for individuals and communities. From these instances, it is evident that right-wing online users often leverage social media platforms and other online spaces to disseminate false information, hate speech, and propaganda.
The intentional manipulation of identities to frame the Muslim community for criminal acts by a leader of a Hindutva oriented organised is a puzzling and startling figure. One can assume that they further wish to polarise sentiment and continue their propaganda of Muslims being terrorists in the public image. Hindutva leaders continue to make hate speech decrying Muslims as terrorists and the need for Hindus to “awaken”, in some instances people are also enjoined to fight and take up arms against Muslims. Thus, these actions to defame Muslims seems to be another example of right-wing forces building conspiracies about the Muslim enemy, and takes a step forward to hoodwink the public by engineering these fake cases.
In all these cases, therefore, there seems to be an underlying assumption evident that it would be easy for people to be distracted from the actual culprits if they are provided with certain forged clues of Muslims being the perpetrators of the crime. People, it seems, who commit these crimes are well aware that Muslims are an easy target of suspicion as well as an easy target for hate as well.
In the age of fake news and fake criminals, this new trend bodes a worrying trend for social harmony in general and the lives and security of Muslims in particular.
Related:
Muslim population a “time bomb” to “Hindus take up arms’: A Seven-Day Hate Report