Mohammad Ali, officially identified as Ayush Malik, has told the media clearly that nobody forced him to convert to Islam. That he has no interest in his family’s property. That his family could give it to others for all he cared. At that point, coverage of the “forced conversion” case from Shamli that has dominated television news space had an obvious next move.

But all this was ignored.

Here is what is not in dispute about the case: on June 7, Shamli police arrested Chandni Qureshi and her father Islam Qureshi, and booked nine people, including a maulvi, under various sections of the BNS covering alleged extortion, cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation, as well as the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.

The complaint was filed by medicine trader Devraj Malik, who alleged that his son Ayush had been converted to Islam under the pretext of marriage to Chandni, and that a nikah had been performed in Delhi using forged documents. Ayush’s father also alleged the conversion was connected to a bid to seize the family’s property – they own two pharmacies. Hindu activists including Swami Yashveer Maharaj had already called for an agitation. Shamli SP N P Singh told reporters that Ayush “might still be in touch with Pakistani religious scholar Dr Israr Ahmed. Israr Ahmed died in 2010. 

What is in dispute is everything the coverage treated as settled because Ayush Malik, the man whose alleged victimhood is holding this entire story together, has contradicted almost all of it. In fact, he said the pressure he was feeling was from people urging him to revert to Hinduism, not from Chandni Qureshi. 

Ayush told News18 India that his decision to convert was voluntary and that no one had forced or influenced him. He said he didn’t want the property – his father could transfer it to his mother and sisters. He said his family was under pressure, and so was he, but the pressure was coming from people pushing him to revert to Hinduism. He asked that no false allegations be made linking his conversion to the property dispute, saying the conversion had happened well before any of that. He also alleged that officials did not allow him to change his name.

Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair flagged the distance between the coverage and the man at its centre in several posts. In one, he called out News18 India’s Rahul Shivshankar for his claims being debunked by his own channel. 

The most glaring example of how the TV media deprived Ayush of his agency was on Aaj Tak.

What Aaj Tak did 

Aaj Tak reporter Arvind Ojha interviewed Ayush. Stood next to him. Heard him out. And then, in his piece-to-camera, said this:

“He keeps harping on the same point – that he had an interest in Islam. From childhood, he preferred offering namaaz over performing traditional Hindu rituals. Look at this man – Ayush Malik, alias Mohammad Ali; he is deeply influenced. Just show his picture. He is so heavily indoctrinated that – as various investigations have revealed – once someone has been brainwashed and converted, the process of deradicalisation becomes extremely difficult. The Shamli police have done an excellent job in this case, arresting Chandni Qureshi and her father. The maulvi is currently absconding. However, recent investigations by the UP ATS and other agencies have uncovered a well-planned conversion racket.”

The camera then panned over Ayush – top to bottom – as though his body were Exhibit A.

Ojha conducted the interview, but decided the subject was too compromised to be believed, and then told viewers as much while the man stood beside him. The word he reached for – deradicalisation – has a meaning. The Centre for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation defines radicalisation as a process whereby people adopt extremist belief systems, including the willingness to use, encourage or facilitate violence, as a means of social transformation. Ayush converted to Islam, married someone, claims he was in touch with his family and also employed. That is not radicalisation by any definition that exists outside a TV studio.

The social media posts from the same channel described Chandni Qureshi’s “मायाजाल” – web of illusion, the videos of a Pakistani maulana, and a “चक्रव्यूह” to seize crores in property. A ticker reduced it to nine words: “Prem jaal, dharmantran aur croron ki property.”

At the time of writing this report on Tuesday afternoon, the channel was still broadcasting the same interview.

Notably, the controversy comes weeks after the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority fined Zee News Rs 1 lakh for broadcasts that framed a woman’s consensual marriage as a communal conspiracy – while airing her own statement saying the opposite. The order by NBDSA Chairperson Justice A.K. Sikri (Retd.) concerned three segments from May 26 and 27, 2025, about a Hindu woman named Sonika who had married a Muslim man named Akbar in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. Sonika had put out a video saying she married Akbar willingly and was leaving with him. The police said the FIR came from her family.

Zee News ran the segment anyway, with tickers like “Love Jihad kerke phans gaye Bhaijan,” “Hindu ladki ke peeche Akbar,” and “Love Jihad pehchan chipakar?” Segment titles called Sonika a victim revealing the “poora sach”. One voiceover called for exposing a “jihadist conspiracy against most Hindus.” All of this ran alongside Sonika’s own statement: “Mati se apne pati ke saath yahaan se ja rahi hoon” – I am leaving from here willingly, with my husband.

The NBDSA’s decision should have paused the Shamli coverage. But it seems it was just a ceiling that’s already been broken through.

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