India Today editor rapped for spreading fake news

The Bengal police on Tuesday flagged a tweet by India Today executive editor Deep Halder about post-poll violence in the state as “fake news”. Halder had tweeted that BJP’s women poll agents were “gangraped” and “many” were molested in Birbhum district, attributing the allegation to the Bengal BJP.

Following this, the editor tweeted that he had confirmed with the police superintendent that reports of gangrape were fake, and deleted his fake news tweet.

Halder was called out by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien, who cautioned him to never do such a thing again.

Since the assembly election result was declared on Monday, Bengal has reported several incidents of political violence. The BJP has accused the Trinamool of allegedly killing six of its people and ransacking the houses and offices of its members. The governing party has rejected the allegations and claimed that its own members were killed in the clashes. Other parties such as the CPIM and the ISF have also reported violence against their members.

Twitter is awash with politicians, journalists and other users reporting alleged incidents of violence in Bengal.

Halder’s tweet being flagged is the second time in recent days that India Today has drawn flak for putting out “fake news”. On Sunday, the Shiv Sena had called out India Today editorial director Rahul Kanwal for "cooking up a lie" when he said "Sena goons" had threatened Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla and demanded vaccines.