The Quint targets Indian Railways again

The Quint, a media organization well known for its many fake stories on important personalities like Kulbhsuhan Jadhav, Piyush Goyal has pulled out another gem from its box of fictions this time. It has published a story on Punjab BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Ms. Chawla in a video can be seen sharing her experiences. The topic of discussion in the video is the Indian Railways and she can be seen complaining about lack of facilities in the Saryu-Yamuna Express. The video was supposedly shot on 22nd December while Ms. Chawla was travelling on Saryu-Yamuna Express, which departed from Jalandhar at 13.20 Hrs on 22.12.2018. Ms. Chawla claimed in the video that the Ticket Checking Staff had taken some money in an unauthorized manner and also that the train was running very late. She also blamed the Indian Railways for being unsympathetic towards the common travelers and more.

However, the Northern Railways division clarified that the TTE (Travelling Ticket Examiner) travelling on that particular train and assigned coach was performing his duty. It was well within his purview to issue Excess Fare Ticket (EFT) to persons travelling on the train coach without a valid ticket. The EFT receipt is issued for the fare amount and the penalty money collected from the passengers. The TTE has in this regard submitted the EFTs issued on the particular train to the concerned authorities of the Railways. Contrary to Ms Chawla’s claims of the train running ‘very late’, the Saryu-Yamuna Express reached the Delhi Railway station merely 7 minutes after the scheduled time. The train after Delhi was running on a diverted route as the section between Roza-Lucknow was affected due to the derailment of a Goods Train. The Railways authority has conducted a preliminary inquiry on the alleged complaint and the report is scheduled to be submitted in a weeks’ time.

The video came to light after Chitleen Kaur Sethi, associate editor at web portal ThePrint shared the video on her Twitter handle and plugged it as a pinned tweet on December 24. Ms. Chawla has previously worked at media houses such as Hindustan Times and Tribune too and therefore by no means can she be termed as not connected with the various media houses who would have otherwise jumped at this opportunity.

But the Quint does not want to leave any chance to defame the Modi government through whatever fake or real stories it can lay its hands on. Recently, the Income Tax Department (ITD) searched the premises of media baron, Raghav Bahl in connection with allegations of tax evasion. Raghav Bahl, promoter and owner of Quintillion Media Private Limited has made 114 crores with an investment of 3.03 crore rupees. Bahl termed the raids by the IT department, as an attack on the Freedom of Press and said that it was an attempt by the Modi government to silence the media organization. A few months back, The Quint had published an investigative video of a soldier without his consent. The video went viral on social media and the soldier committed suicide due to embarrassment. The Quint also published an article in which it praised the notorious terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, for being a loving father and a husband. In another such story, the den of left-liberal cabal published a story criticizing Kulbhushan Jadhav’s role as an Indian spy in Pakistan. It has also published a story in which it alleged that 1857, the First War of Independence hero, Mangal Pandey was neither a patriot nor a freedom fighter.