On February 19, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Mumbai's women's wing president Rizwana Khan filed a police complaint against a few X (formerly Twitter) handles for allegedly sharing derogatory claims about herself and her party colleague Waris Pathan. She initially approached Mumbai police to file a complaint for stalking, sexual harassment and making communal statements and urged to convert it into an FIR.
The FIR was subsequently filed under sections 354 (Assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC. Further, after the police recorded Khan's statement, sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) were added to the FIR.
X user Anand kumar🙏🚩(@Anandkumar_IND), on February 17, posted an image of Rizwana Khan and Waris Pathan and claimed that AIMIM leader Waris Pathan's sister was also his wife and stepmother.
Premium subscribed X user Sudhir Mishra 🇮🇳 (@Sudhir_mish) whose bio mentions that he is a journalist, quote-tweeted the post by (@Anandkumar_IND) and further amplified the claim.
Several Right-Wing accounts on X which are subscribed to Premium shared the same image with similar captions amplifying the claim. These include @Dr_RizwanAhmed, @ChandanSharmaG, @AchalSharmaBjp, @iameet1012tnh, @VISHNUK35030487, @RRajawat67, @kanhakids91549, @ManojSr60583090, @lal_amrendra, @Real_Deepika_ and @Modified_Hindu9.
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Photo from Press Conference Shared Out of Context
We ran a reverse image search on the viral image and found that it is a screengrab from a press conference video which was posted on Instagram on AIMIM leader Waris Pathan's official page on January 28. In the press conference, the AIMIM leader could be heard talking about the inauguration of the party's new office in Mumbai's Malvani. He could further be heard speaking about the communal tension in Mumbai's Mira Road.
We came across another video on his page posted on the same day wherein Waris Pathan is seen inaugurating the new AIMIM office in Mumbai. Rizwana Khan, among other AIMIM members, could also be seen in the video. The caption of the video said: "Waris Pathan inaugurated Aimim national office at Malad malwani mumbai. Thanks to mumbai ladies wing president Rizwana essa ji."
After filing a complaint urging Mumbai police to take action against the X accounts in question, Rizwana Khan shared a video on February 19 from outside the police station talking about the vile nature of the tweets targeting her and her party colleague. She highlighted that the claim concerning herself and Waris Khan, that had gone viral with image, was derogatory towards women.
In another tweet, sharing a video where Khan could be seen speaking to a police personnel, she tweted: "Registering an FIR in Malwani Police Thane against those who made inappropriate comments on the photo of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen national spokesperson Sir @warispathan and Mumbai Mahila president Rizwana Isa Khan. @aimim_national".
Further, AIMIM leader Waris Pathan also shared a copy of the FIR on X on February 20 and wrote in the caption: "FIR Registered by malvani police malad for offences u/ sec 354,509 IPC against almost 15 persons (Twitter handles)who tweeted with malafide intentions to outrage the modesty of a women and making derogatory remarks . Cyber cell will also take action ."
Waris Pathan is married to Gazala Pathan who is a women's rights activist. The claims of him being related to AIMIM Mumbai women's wing chief Rizwana Khan are entirely false and baseless.
Amplifying claims like these --- that a Muslim person has married his own sister or stepmother --- is a common strategy used by the Right Wing to demonize the community on social media and in public discourse. Alt News has in the past written against such communal stereotyping of the minorities.
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