A dhaba owner in UP’s Bareilly district was killed following a verbal spat with 3 customers who were asked to pay a mere Rs 4 extra for tea as per revised rates.

The accused – Munawwar Khan, 42, Mozim Khan, 30 and Musharraf Khan, 31 – were nabbed while they were trying to escape on Wednesday. According to the police, the victim, Sewaram Gangwar (45), is a resident of Fatehganj West. He ran a dhaba on Delhi-Lucknow national highway.

The accused had gone to the dhaba for a cup of tea on March 11. After Gangwar asked them to pay Rs 4 extra as per the new rate list, an argument ensued and he asked them to leave. Next day, the three accused visited the restaurant on the pretext of apologizing for their behavior and invited Sewaram for a drink.

Unaware of their intentions, Gangwar agreed and went along with them. Later, they stabbed him to death and dumped his body in a field in Fatehgarh West. SSP Bareilly Rohit Singh Sajwan said, “We have recovered the murder weapon and the vehicle used for dumping the body.”

The SSP also added that the accused have confessed to the crime and claimed it was committed ‘under the influence of alcohol’. One hopes authorities do no take such statements at face value, as these are usual tactics to transform a cold-blooded, pre-planned crime into one committed ‘unintentionally’ under the influence of alcohol.

Kanwardeep Singh, the Times of India reporter who filed a report on this incident, has a past history of biased and anti-Hindu reporting. His report carries the allegation that Sewaram ‘hurled insults’ at the accused as an obvious fact, whereas the dead man can no longer defend himself and neither is there any mention of any witness to that altercation.

Singh’s TOI version also varies in one significant detail from what local media sources have reported. He writes “the three accused visited the restaurant on the pretext of seeking an apology from Gangwar and invited him for a drink”, whereas the Hindi report says, “लेकिन अगले दिन तीनों दोबारा ढाबे पर आए। इस दौरान उन्होंने दिखावा किया कि उन्हें अपने किए पर पछतावा है और वे माफी मांगने आए हैं।’ (the next day, the three returned to the dhabha and pretended as if they are sorry about their behavior and wanted to apologize).

Logically speaking, why would Sewaram agree to go for a drink with the accused if they were seeking an apology from him? But this is how unethical, Hindu-hating MSM reporters twist the narrative and subtly demonize Hindu victims while creating justification for the attackers’ deed.

Singh ends the article by openly trying to create empathy for the accused, reporting the ‘defense’ proffered by Munawwar Khan who claims Sewaram “misbehaved and threatened us…we felt humiliated…we decided to seek revenge”.

3 Muslim men felt ‘threatened’ by a sole Hindu, in Bareilly district where Muslims are ~ 40% of population? On Holi day, 2 Hindu men were brutally thrashed by a Muslim mob in Bareilly as they were returning home after playing Holi after a rumor went around that Hindus had thrown color on a mosque. Even police who arrived at the spot to calm matters were not spared.

‘Journalists’ like Kanwardeep Singh and his Hinduphobic editors at TOI should realize that the days of fooling Hindus with half-truths, unverifiable allegations and innuendo are over. Not a day goes by when Hindus are not humiliated for something or the other in this ‘secular’ Republic – not the least by courts who ask them to forget bigoted Hindu hatred in novels that say “Hindu girls dress nicely to go to temple to signal their readiness for sex.”

Should we all take the law into our hands? Would Singh and others of his ilk report the Hindu justification in the same tone?