Muslim patient denied treatment by Hindu doctor over Pahalgam terror attack? Read how the Quint and others spread fake news to malign a doctor
Social media is rife with fake stories of ‘Muslim victimhood’ ever since the Pahalgam terror attack, where Islamic terrorists massacred Hindus. The make-believe stories, republished by The Quint and others, are designed in such a way as to demonise Hindus and shift public debate from the religious profiling of victims during the Pahalgam terror attack.
One such fake story came to light on Sunday (26th April). A Kolkata-based gynaecologist named Dr Champakali Sarkar was falsely accused of not treating a patient named Kangkona Khatun due to her religion.
It was claimed that Dr Champakali Sarkar, who works at the Kasturi Das Memorial Super Speciality Hospital, refused treatment to Kangkona Khatun because she was a Muslim.
Screengrab of the report by The Quint
Leftist propaganda outlet The Quint attributed this statement to Dr Champakali Sarkar – “People from your religion are killing people from my religion, you people are murderers.”
“Your husband should be killed by Hindus so you can feel the pain that Hindus went through. You should only go to Madrassas and Masjids for your treatment where Muslims are taught to become terrorists,” it further alleged.
There is no iota of evidence that these statements were made. The Quint gave disproportionate representation to the statements of Kangkona Khatun, her husband and sister-in-law Mehfuza (who is a lawyer by occupation).
An emphasis was also made on the report on an unverified call recording to paint Dr Sarkar as the villain. Her statement received very little representation in the article, although it is centred around her.
The journalist who wrote the report was Aliza Noor, who had previously peddled another fake news to cement the narrative of ‘ Muslim victimhood.’
Screengrab of the report by The Times of India
The Times of India even went on to claim that the doctor somehow did not know the religion of the patient and got angry after seeing her surname ‘Khatun’
“According to the complaint, the doctor, who has been treating the woman for seven months, knew her by her first name-Konkona. On seeing her surname-Khatun, the doctor allegedly said she would not treat a Muslim patient, referred to attacks, and made allegations of religious bigotry,” it said in its report.
The fake news was further peddled by Deccan Chronicle and Islamic propaganda sites like Muslim Mirror, Maktoob Media, and Siasat.
The Truth behind the claims
In reality, the patient Kangkona Khatun had been going to Dr Sarkar for routine checkups for over 7 months. It is highly unlikely that the doctor did not figure out the religion of the victim in such a long time.
If she were discriminatory by nature, the doctor would have refused treatment to the patient quite early on. According to Kangkona Khatun, the doctor immediately had a problem after learning about her surname 7 months later.
And the revelation of the surname coincidentally happened 2 days after the Pahalgam terror attack. Kangkona Khatun claimed that the doctor refused treatment to her on Thursday (24th April).
Khatun had filed a police complaint on Friday (25th April). However, her claims soon fell flat as facts of the case emerged.
Popular Kolkata-based anesthesiologist Dr Pramod Ranjan Roy had shared the screenshot of the consultation fees paid by Kangkona Khatun to Dr Champakali Sarkar on Friday (26th April) – the same day on which Khatun alleged to have not been treated and subjected to hate comments.
The question arises – Why did the patient pay the consultation fees for a checkup at the doctor’s home when no treatment was done?
The truth is further evident from the press release of the West Bengal Doctors Forum (WBDF) on Tuesday (29th April). It has upheld the statement of Dr Champakali Sarkar after reviewing the evidence provided by her.
Press release by WBDF
“After contacting the concerned doctor directly and verifying the facts, we have preliminarily found the facts stated to be contrary to the allegations being circulated. The patient in question was, in fact, attended to by the doctor at her residence upon the patient’s own request. As evidence, we have verified the online payment receipt of the consultation fees, dated and timed appropriately, which further substantiates that the consultation did indeed take place,” the statement of WBDF punctured the lies of Kangkona Khatun.
It pointed out that Khatun had overheard a private conversation between Dr Champakai Sarkar, which was unrelated to her.
“It appears that some discussions unrelated to the patient, involving members of the doctor’s household, may have inadvertently been overheard. If any such conversation was not to the patient’s liking, it is beyond the professional purview of the doctor to address private matters of household conversations,” the statement added.
Additionally, it stated that doctors have been similarly targeted in the past over false accusations. OpIndia had reached out to Dr Koushik Chaki, a member of the West Bengal Doctors Forum (WBDF), who confirmed the veracity of the press release.
What did Dr Champakali Sarkar say
In a video shared by Dr Pramod Ranjan Roy, the victim Dr Champaki Sarkar has provided her statement –
“I am Dr CK Sarkar. I am a practitioner for the last 30 years in Behala, South 24 Parganas. I am a believer in medical ethics. All patients are the same for me. I give equal priority to all my patients. There is no value of caste, religion and race in my eyes. I try my best to properly and ethically treat the patients. Some people had a problem with me. You guys do not listen to the rumours. There have been attempts to sabotage my career. I have received information from social media and news reports. These kind of rumours are spread during a time of crisis. I am hopeful that you will not fall for this.”
Additionally, the doctor has vowed to take legal action against Khatun for trying to destroy her 3-decade-long career over personal reasons.
She has additionally told The Telegraph that majority of her patients are Muslims. “Eighty per cent of my patients are Muslims. Will I say something that hurts me the most? I have also filed a complaint at Parnasree police station that I am being defamed,” Dr Champakali Sarkar informed.
The doctor has also clarified that the unverified audio call recording is fake. “No, that’s all fake, that’s not my call recording,” she told The Quint.
Not the first attempt to defame Hindus
A concerted effort is being made to demonise the Hindu community by accusing it of targeting Kashmiris and Muslims in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.
This ‘Muslim victimhood’ card is employed to divert public debate from the religious hate-fueled nature of the terror attack.
OpIndia had exclusively debunked the fake news about the death of a Muslim corporate employee in Bengaluru at the hands of his Hindu colleagues for not chanting ‘Gayatri Mantra’ and not commenting on the Pahalgam terror attack.
The fake news was amplified by the leftist propaganda outlet, The Quint, which later deleted the story without citing any apology.
The story was covered by ‘journalist’ Aliza Noor based on a fake story by a LinkedIn user named Ishan Saxena and did not bother to verify the facts of the matter. It was gutted after it failed to fit the ‘Muslim victimhood’ story.
Noor (who had also written the Kolkata doctor story) has now deleted her X and Instagram accounts after the exposé.
The vicious ecosystem had also amplified the story of the molestation of a Kashmiri student at Jamia Millia Islamia. It later went silent when the perpetrator turned out to be Mohammed Abid from Mewat.
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