Recently, a matter came to light, where a media organisation knowingly tried to cover up the crimes committed by a man belonging to the minority community. The media changed the name of the rapist. It has been learnt that the rapist is said to be a Muslim scholar named Aslam Faizi, but media is not disclosing his real name and religion.
On the contrary, the media changed the name of the rapist of the victim to Tantrik in order to defame Hindu. Media used the image of a saffron-clad Hindu priest and termed the perpetrator as “Tantrik”.
The case pertained to a distraught woman in Bilaspur suffering from the agony of an estranged husband and family problems. To overcome her agony, she reached out to a Muslim scholar named Aslam Faizi and sought his help. But Aslam took advantage of her plight and forced her to make a physical relationship with him and later assured her that all her problems will be solved now.
Days were passed but her husband did not return and her family problems did not seem to be normal. The woman then realised that she had been raped by the Muslim scholar who exploited her condition. The woman immediately went to the police and filed a complaint against Aslam Faizi. The police registered a case under section 376 of the IPC against the accused.
The police launched an investigation into the matter and came to know that Aslam Faizi alias Suhail Raza, a resident of Manendragarh-Chirmiri, was a cleric of a mosque. He lived on rent in Pendra and claimed of curing people by witchcraft. During the investigation, it was found that Aslam was very famous in his area because of his witchcraft skills.
Therefore, The 34-year-old victim approached him with a hope that he would solve her problem, but she did not know that Moulvi would ruin her life. He had been cheating on the victim by assuring her that he would bring her husband back. The woman developed faith in him and followed the maulana’s directions, who raped her several times in the name of solving her problems.
While the accused was patently Muslim, several media organisations, including Nayi Duniya, gave the entire incident a Hindu spin by describing the alleged rapist as “Tantrik”, a practitioner of the “tantra vidya“. Moreover, an image of a Hindu priest was used to characterise the Muslim sorcerer who had allegedly committed rape by coercing the victim. Following which, people lashed out at the media for defaming the Hindu community.
