Fake: Old Tweet resurfaces to claim Rana Ayyub defended child rapists

New Delhi, Apr 25: A fake post, purportedly by news channel Republic TV, claims to show that journalist Rana Ayyub made a statement "defending minor child rapists".

'Minor child rapists are also human, do they have no human rights. This Hinduvta Government is bringing ordinance for death to child rapists just to hang muslims in larger numbers. Muslims aren't safe in India anymore," reads the quote falsly attributed to Rana Ayyub.

However, it was found that the tweet is from fake account. Further, in 2019, Ayyub had called the tweet 'photoshopped'.

"This fake photo-shopped tweet that shows me advocating child rapists in the name of Islam is being circulated yet again all over social media. From the likes of Ashok Pandit to the entire right wing eco system is sharing this tweet. How sick are you guys!", Ayyub had tweeted.

Further, the user name of the official Twitter profile of Republic TV is '@republic', the one in the photoshopped image read, '@republicTv'.

The journalist is massively targeted with social media trolling.

Meanwhile, the money-laundering case against Ayyub was filed by the ED after taking cognisance of a September, 2021 FIR of the Ghaziabad police (Uttar Pradesh) related to alleged irregularities in donor funds of over Rs 2.69 crore raised by her through "Ketto".