Zee News apologises for linking Rahul Gandhi's unrelated remarks to Udaipur killing

Zee News issued an apology on Saturday after the TV news channel misleadingly aired unrelated remarks by Rahul Gandhi as his statement on the Udaipur killing.

The channel's primetime show DNA aired video of Gandhi talking about the vandalisation of his constituency office in Wayanad, Kerala, and passed them off as his remarks on the killing. Before playing the clip, anchor Rohit Ranjan said that Gandhi had made “shocking” comments on the Udaipur killing. “While calling the accused from the Udaipur killing, he said that he is not angry with them,” Ranjan said.

In the clip, Gandhi also refers to the recent instances of violence in the country and says, “The atmosphere in the country has been created by the ruling dispensation.” Shortly after, the video clip cuts to Gandhi saying, “The children who did this…they've acted in an irresponsible way. I don't have any anger or hostility towards them…they are kids, I don't think they understand the consequences of these types of things.”

In a day bulletin on Saturday, the channel issued an apology saying the clip was broadcast with the wrong context.

Last week, Kerala police detained at least 25 activists associated with the Students Federation of India, which is the student wing of the ruling CPIM, after they marched to Gandhi's Wayanad office in protest against the Congress’s purported indifference to a Supreme Court order mandating buffer zones around forests.