India Today TV anchor Sardesai is taken off air
Senior journalist and India Today TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, trolled for his incorrect reportage, wherein he claimed one farmer was killed in police firing at ITO, faces the ignominy of being taken off air for two weeks.
A month’s salary, too, has been deducted for his nowdeleted tweet in which he had said: “One person, 45-year-old Navneet, killed allegedly in police firing at ITO. Farmers tell me: the ‘sacrifice’ will not go in vain.”
Later, Sardesai compounded his mistake while speaking to his reporter on the spot and declared how the deceased would become a symbol for the agitating farmers and they would not leave till they got “justice for Navneet”.
Sardesai, who is also the consulting editor of India Today, retracted his tweet the same day and subsequently tweeted a video, saying: “While the protestors claim that the deceased Navneet Singh was shot at by Delhi Police while he was on a tractor, this video clearly shows that the tractor overturned while trying to break the police barricades. The protestors’ allegations don’t stand. Post mortem awaited.”
However, the belated attempt to correct the public perception failed in the face of the online wrath. The Delhi Police, to buttress their contention, also released a video showing Singh speeding and running over barricades with his tractor, resulting in the vehicle overturning. A post-mortem report revealed that he died due to a “traumatic injury above the lef t side of his skull from where his brain started oozing out”.