Hindi news channel Zee News had published a report claiming that stones were pelted on the medical team escorting the coronavirus-positive members of Tablighi Jamaat in Uttar Pradesh. However, the media organisation, which is quite famous for running hate campaigns against Muslims, has once again been exposed.
'You are spreading false and misleading news'
However, the report published by Zee News' Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand vertical on April 6, 2020, and on Zee News' Facebook page, where it received more than 5,500 likes and 1,400 shares was refuted by the Firozabad police.
"You are spreading false and misleading news when neither a medical team nor any ambulance has been pelted with stones in Firozabad district. Delete your tweet immediately." the Firozabad police tweeted from their official handle.
After being named and shamed openly for spreading fake and communal news, Zee News deleted the tweet and edited the report. However, Zee News has not changed the headline of the article shared on Facebook and the post has been shared by more than 1,600 times and liked by over 6,000 people.
"All these Jamaatis are from Bihar, and they were hiding in the Salman Farsi Mosque of Durgesh Nagar, which comes under the Rasulpur area of Firozabad," it said. "Apart from these, the tests were conducted on 11 Jamaatis from Gujarat who were living in the mosque in the Ramgarh area. All these have escaped the grip of the coronavirus. Their tests have come negative."
In Uttar Pradesh, there are at many as 227 active positive cases of the novel coronavirus. While two patients have died, 19 have recovered. According to the Health Ministry, at least 1,445 cases are related to the Tablighi Jamaat event out of the total 4,067 positive coronavirus cases in the country.
