Congress exploiting unverified social media content to politicise murder case, alleges BJP

PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun

The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Congress of playing politics in the Ankita Bhandari case on the basis of unverified claims being made on social media. The party’s State general secretary Deepti Rawat Bharadwaj alleged that the Congress is exploiting unverified and indecent content that inflames emotions to play politics in the murder case. Stating that Bhandari was Uttarakhand’s daughter, she said that using her name repeatedly on Facebook, Instagram and other social media to create sensation does not amount to respecting the departed soul.

Bharadwaj said, “The Congress has no topic left to approach the public with due to which it is misleading the people of the State. The Congress is creating new stories full of allegations based on some selected videos and rumours. This is not a process to get justice but a social media trial. If any person has proper evidence, one should approach the court or the investigation agency. It is time to stop exploiting social media to misguide the public and play politics in Bhandari’s name,” the BJP leader said.

She said that the State government had acted swiftly in the case, arresting the accused within 24 hours of receiving information, recovering the body within 48 hours, forming a Special Investigation Team and strongly advocating for justice in court, due to which the accused were convicted and given life sentences by the court. Bharadwaj appealed to the Congress to desist from attempting to make baseless, objectionable and unverified content from social media platforms a “political weapon” to mar the atmosphere in the State. She also expressed hope that the social media platforms concerned and the administration/cyber agencies will take stern action against the objectionable content to maintain the level of public discourse.