The death by fire of Greater Noida’s Nikki Bhati has been a puzzle surrounded by a maze of conflicting claims and evidence.
Worse, television news — and some newspaper reports — have confused us so much that we are left with few answers.
One week after Nikki’s death on 21 August and on the basis of the continuing coverage of Nikki’s death on TV news and other news media, we’re have a mountain of questions: Who or what killed Nikki? Was she murdered or did she die by suicide? If she was murdered, who murdered her? Her husband, Vipin? Or his family? Why was Nikki’s sister Kanchan videotaping Nikki’s death instead of trying to save her?
Did Nikki die due to a gas cylinder explosion, as stated in the hospital admission report? Was she “set ablaze” by Vipin with the help of his mother, as Kanchan has stated? Did she set herself on fire? Was the inflammable agent “a thinner” or kerosene oil, as claimed by Kanchan?
Was her death due to dowry demands? Was it because Kanchan and she wanted to reopen their beauty parlour and Vipin objected? Did Vipin react violently to Nikki’s reels featuring her in exotic cars? Did he demand a Mercedes from his in-laws? Or did he kill his wife because of an affair with another woman?
The answers to these questions vary and change depending on the source of news you consult. And they switch all the time, from hour to hour, day to day — depending on fresh evidence, new clues, or who is interviewed.
The moral of this coverage of Nikki’s death is that journalists should stick to the verifiable facts and identified sources of information. And exercise a little patience: Wait before pointing a finger or jumping to conclusions. We’re not the police, so let’s stop trying to solve the case?
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Sensationalism over substance
Is it asking too much for us to be sensitive, not sensational?
It is next to impossible for television news to resist hyperbole and temper its language.
All week, the news of Nikki’s death has hit the headlines – and TV news quickly spun it into a spectacle. Here are a few of the banners that ran:
‘Bashed and Burnt’ (CNN News18), ‘Love, Lalach Aur Dhoka’ (Times Now Navbharat), ‘India v Dowry Demons’ (India TV), ‘Monster In Laws’ (India Today), ‘How Will These Monsters Be Punished?’ (News X), ‘Khoon Ka Badla Khoon’ (News18 India).
TV news delights in disturbing visuals — even as it warns viewers that the images may be disturbing! And so, we have been watching mobile footage (possibly from Kanchan’s phone) of a woman identified as Nikki, seated on the floor and then going up in flames as she walks unsteadily down a flight of stairs.
Another video shows ‘Nikki’ being assaulted by Vipin — with blood on his midriff — and his mother either pushing Nikki or pulling her away. TV news promptly decided the mother-in-law was abetting her son.
News channels also played out the testimony of Nikki and Vipin’s six-year-old son as he stood next to Kanchan, saying he saw his father pour something over his mother and then set her on fire. Did he need to be exposed? Well, yes, if you want headlines such as, ‘Brutally Killed, Burnt In Front Of Son’ (India Today).
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A carousel of theories
Television channels promoted the theory that this was a dowry death, ignoring news reports quoting the police, who flatly denied it — including in this 24 August ground report in ThePrint.
The Times of India also quoted the police: “So far we haven’t found any evidence of dowry…” in its Page 1 report on 25 August.
The dowry claim was based on interviews with Nikki’s family, sought out by most news outlets — and its members were only too willing to speak up. Often, this desire of bereaved families to share their opinions and their grief with the media leads TV news to sensationalise its coverage.
“They (Vipin’s family) were very greedy,” concluded the India TV anchor. “Yes, very greedy,” agreed the reporter.
All this, even as news channels suggested that Nikki’s Instagram reels and her beauty parlour caused Vipin heartburn. ‘Beauty parlour or dowry?’ asked News X.
Even as these were proposed as motives for her murder, Tuesday brought reports of Vipin’s affair with another woman. ‘Woman, husband fought over his plan for a vacation without her, family tells police,’ said The Indian Express, citing her family.
Times Now Navbharat ran what it claimed were “chats” between Vipin and a woman. This showed “Vipin’s internal character”, declared the anchor — but didn’t shed light on his character.
Then, TV news channels like Aaj Tak obtained CCTV footage showing Vipin’s family at Nikki’s cremation on 22 August — before her sister filed the FIR against them. Why were they there, asked the anchor, if Nikki’s family suspected them? “Was there some ‘secret’ behind the case?” she added. Curiouser and curiouser…
Even as you were trying to make sense of that, came news of CCTV footage showing Vipin standing outside his house when Nikki was allegedly set on fire. This looped constantly across news channels on Tuesday and was reported in newspapers like The Times of India: ‘Noida dowry case: CCTV ‘shows husband outside house’ at time of death’ (26 August).
If you consider the sequence here, you will see that Nikki’s death still has no concrete answers, despite the arrest of Vipin and members of his family.
On Wednesday afternoon, India Today was reporting that Nikki and Kanchan’s sister-in-law, married to their brother, claimed she too was mistreated for dowry. And Vipin alleged he had been tortured by Nikki and Kanchan. As the anchor said, it was impossible to know whom — or what — to believe.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)