Thiruninravur police station in Chennai has registered an FIR against Nupur J Sharma, the editor-in-chief of OpIndia and the website’s CEO, Rahul Roshan. The action comes in the wake of allegations spread by Op India claiming that Hindi-speaking migrant labourers, particularly from Bihar, were being assaulted and killed in Tamil Nadu. Several of the videos alleged to have been ‘proof’ of such attacks have since been debunked by fact-checking news site Alt News. The Tamil Nadu Labour Welfare and Skill Development had also released a statement, earlier this week, denying the attacks. Further, the Bihar state government had sent a team to probe the matter and found that the allegations are false.
The FIR against Nupur J Sharma and Op India CEO has been registered under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), based on a complaint made by Suryaprakash from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) IT Wing.
OpIndia had claimed that at least 15 migrant workers had been brutally assaulted and that the bodies of murdered workers were being returned to several districts in Bihar. The article made claims of speaking to Bihari workers who made these allegations to OpIndia. The website also quoted an article by Dainik Bhaskar which published similar reports.
The leading Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar which alleged that Biharis in Tamil Nadu were facing “Talibani” style attacks. Dainik Bhaskar — on a phone call with a Bihari man in Tamil Nadu — claimed that 15 Biharis had received life threats in the southern state. A video story accompanying the report showed visuals of altercations between two groups of men. Following the publication of the article, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar also raised his concerns with his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin.
Four out of five of the videos, purportedly of the attacks, have been debunked by fact-checking news site Alt News. The incidents in the videos, Alt News proved, were unrelated to migrant workers. Two of the videos, Alt News found, were of incidents outside Tamil Nadu. Regarding the fifth, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) Sylendra Babu released a statement that it was fake.