It was a chance visit to a site I often spend time at whenever I am starved of good reading material. For someone who takes more than mere academic interest in the Northeast, my click on the link "Murder of truth after murder at Gateway" was a foregone reflex action.
After zipping through the article, I gave it a second read and empathised with the writer who made a clean breast of things: "I am thoroughly confused by now. What are the newspapers telling me? What are the names of victims? What is their age? What time did the attack happen? What is the villain's name? How old is he? Is he mad or not? Did he kill his father or not? Was he stabbed 12 times or 21 times? Can people change their name and age overnight? Can people in coma walk and can cops grill criminals before the crime?"
It is no more a question of "a man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure (Lee Segall)." A person who reads two newspapers will end up as thoroughly flummoxed as the writer in question was. Why? Just read what s/he wrote:
Mumbai Mirror pronounced the attacker mad on Day One. In the Page 2 story headlined "Terror at Gateway" the assailant is termed a "deranged man". The woman who died of stab wounds is Leishi Choan Shaizi, while her friend is Ngakuimi Rateng. Both are aged 23, says Mumbai Mirror. The attacker, they say, refused to divulge his name.
Looks like he divulged his name to Mirror parent Times of India. The Times front page story titled "Gore at Gateway" names the villain as Umer Patel. Unlike Mirror, Times did not pronounce him mad. "A seemingly mentally disturbed man," is how TOI terms him. Umer Patel came from Gulshan Nagar near Jogeshwari, informs Times. He stabbed his father 12 times in the morning, according to Times. The attack happened at 5.45 PM. The dead woman is Leish Choan (23) and her wounded friend is Ngakuim Raony (20). Times has reduced 3 years from the second woman's age given by Mumbai Mirror as 23.
According to Hindustan Times, the villain is Junaid Patel, aged 22. In the front page lead story titled Gore at Gateway (same headline as in Times), HT identifies the woman who died as Lei Shichon (18) and her friend as Ngal (20). Notice the difference in age. The dead woman is also named Qui (??) twice in the story as well as in the graphic with the story. According to HT, the attack took place at 5.30 PM. Moreover, HT goes where no one has gone before - it says Patel "had just killed his father." (In the next day's Mumbai Mirror, the "dead" father speaks to a journalist.)
The confusion over the victims' names continues. According to Mumbai Newsline, the Express pullout for Mumbai, the girls are Nga Kuimi Raleng (23) and Leisha Choan (20). Also, the age given is totally different from those given by Mumbai Mirror, Times and HT. According to Newsline, the attack took place at 5.40 PM. The attacker is Junaid Patel (age 25). Name is the same as in HT; only, he is three years older in Newsline.
DNA, which has made me speak up and pen this report, calls it "Ghastly murder at Gateway of India". Here, the villain is Ujjaid Shah Patel. The victims' names are new too - they are Nisa Choan (23) and Nagakuimi Ralang (20). Different ages here too. Attack was at 6.15 PM, different from Mumbai Mirror, Times, Newline and HT. Besides, the villain comes from Oshiwara, not Jogeshwari as we thought before. His father is Issack Patel, who DNA claims, "succumbed to injuries." Really? Was it the father's ghost in the next day's Mumbai Mirror?
I am already disheartened by the gory news. The Mumbai newspapers have made it worse.
Monday morning, and Mumbai Mirror wakes me up with the news that "Gateway killer not mad". I am taken by surprise. Did he undergo some super psychiatric therapy at the Mumbai Mirror office the previous night, so that the man they termed "deranged" the previous day came to his senses? I can't believe this. Hardly a week back, Mumbai Mirror had carried a sting operation to "expose" Thane mental asylum superintendent Dr AR Nakalgaonkar. In true tabloid fashion, Mirror had claimed that the asylum chief was pronouncing normal people mad, with a little money under the table. Mumbai Mirror must have received inspiration from the doctor, pronouncing the attacker mad one day and sane the next.
And yes, they have now got his name too. It is Uzer Patel, and age is 27, according to Mirror. He stabbed his father (name changes to Ishaque Patel now) 21 times. That is a cool 9 stabs more than what its parent Times reported. Still, Mirror says he is NOT mad.
Move on to HT, which says that "Grief, fear follow Gateway killing". From Lei Shichon (18) and Qui the previous day, the name changes now to Leishichon Lenchen Shaiza and she is older by five years.(23 now). Her friend named Ngal (aged 20) the previous day now becomes Ngauni Raleng. She is also called Ngakuimi Raleng in another story. Elsewhere, an HT report says that police officer Naval Bajaj interrogated the criminal "on Friday morning". As far as we all know, the stabbing happened on Saturday evening. Did the cop interrogate the criminal before the crime? If so, why did the cop not make a preventive arrest? Jus' kidding!
Spreading its lantern light further, HT now calls the villain Ujair Patel, aged 28. From Junaid Patel, aged 22, HT has added six years to his life in a single day. HT, we need more light for Mumbai!
Times is not far behind. From Umer Patel, his name changes to Uzer Patel. After safely terming him "A seemingly mentally disturbed man" the previous day, Times now calls him "a mentally unsound youth". This is the opposite of the Mumbai Mirror version. A (Mumbai) mirror image, sort of. Besides, the name changes from Leish Choan to Leishachoan. Ngakuim Raony of the prevous day becomes Ngakuimi Raleng. Another Times story quotes a police officer as saying: "He is now saying that he has a mental problem and had killed the two girls because of depression". Okay. So two girls were killed, not one. Thanks for the information, Times!
According to Newsline, the victim was Nga Kuimi Raleng on the first day and Ngakuimi Ralang the second day. Father is Isad, says Newline. DNA told us it was Issack Patel.
On day two, DNA changed the victim's name to Chouthi Shaiza from the previous day's Nisa Choan. According to DNA, the villain's age is 27.
Interestingly, a line in the DNA report on the church mourning service reads: "They are the friends of Nagakuimi Ralang, who has slipped into a coma after an assault..." The photo above the story shows the woman in question walking. I didn't know that people in coma could walk.
Like a good journalist who did not break the news, I did my own follow-up and came up with results that will add to the confusion. In far away Kolkata, The Telegraph named the assailant as 28-year-old Huzer Patel who had killed Lisa John (25) and injured Naga Kuimi (20). Yes, he had indeed stabbed his father and "seemed to be mentally unstable". The incident had happened at 5.45 pm.
The Hindu reported that the woman had been "hacked" to death. Yech. Id est, if stabbing and hacking are synonymous, of course. This was the only paper which put the attacker in his thirties (32, in fact). Junaid Patel had murdered Nisa Choan (23) and injured Ngakuimi Ralane (20). The man was "mentally unbalanced" and had "allegedly" stabbed his father too. This paper was as lateback as DNA ? the time of the attack was given as 6.15 pm.
It was only The Statesman which had played very very safe with its PTI feed. The agency revealed that both the deceased and the survivor were women, but the man remained "unidentified". When in doubt, leave it out – that is what my news editor had once told me when I was once with PTI (seems ages back, now). News agencies have a morbid fetish for going by the clock; so PTI did not miss out on the time the incident happened: 6.00 pm sharp. Clockwork arranged? Another news agency, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) fed Deccan Herald a good day later. Uzer Patel (27) had murdered Lisa John and injured Ngakuim Raony. Patel was "mentally disturbed", you see. No time in this case. Clockwork deranged?
Phew!
Read all these newspapers, and you will know even in that nonplussed state of mind as to why bloggers everywhere are screaming themselves hoarse: don't believe the media. Too bad the small newspapers based in the Northeast cannot afford to (not that there is much need of a pressing need to) have staffers in Mumbai. I'd rather be satisfied with whatever little the Assam Tribunes and Imphal Free Presses have to roll hot off their presses. At least, they don't profess either to be the masthead of the world, or throw much light around.
PS: The site in question is Dance With Shadows (www.dancewithshadows.com) and the original article can be found here.
