A fake message has been doing the rounds that controversial BJP MLA Raja Singh's sister has converted to Islam. The message with a header of The News Minute claims that the legislator from Goshamahal, booked various times for his hate speeches, has a sister named Maya Devi, who had 'accepted' Islam.
"India is a democratic country choosing religion is our personal right, no one can force. I don't hate any other religions nor I support any political party. I believe in humanity. My parents always supported me in every decision. My brother separated from us for these reasons (sic)," the message states.
TNM has not written any such report and the photos doing the rounds on WhatsApp and Facebook are clearly morphed.
When TNM fact-checked the message, we found that the photos being circulated are of a woman called Aysha alias Athira. From Kerala's Kasargod, Aysha was in the news in 2017 after she converted to Islam and the case reached the state's High Court.
TNM also reached out to Raja Singh, who said, “It is totally untrue. I have filed a complaint with the cyber crime wing of the Hyderabad police."
He also said that he had not heard of anyone by the name Maya Devi. When asked if he had a sister or any other siblings, he said, "All Hindu women in India are my sisters."
Further, he sarcastically exhorted this reporter to “publish that she’s my ex-girlfriend and she’s taking revenge on me.” When asked to clarify what he meant, the BJP MLA said “if they are spreading fake news then I can also respond with fake news like this.” He also sent TNM a video that was being circulated, laced with sexist expletives about the person who made the graphic. TNM is withholding the video from being published.
Raja Singh, the only BJP MLA in the present Telangana Assembly, has been repeatedly accused of making controversial statements and speeches.
In 2018, he called for “shooting down” Rohingya Muslims as they were “foreigners” besides calling for a ban on the Quran and threatening to burn down theatres in Telangana that screened the Bollywood movie Padmaavat. In 2017, he threatened to behead those who opposed the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
He has 43 criminal cases against him as per his latest affidavit, filed in December 2018.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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