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Odisha Daily Apologises After Publishing Rajdeep Sardesai’s Sketch As ‘Terror Suspect’

Rajdeep Sardesai recently found himself in the limelight for a rather shocking reason. An Odisha daily newspaper called Sambad published a photo of the renowned journalist and identified him as a‘terror suspect’.

It all started when, Mumbai was put on high alert after two school children saw a few suspicious looking men in Mumbai’s Uran area. While one of them claimed that he saw one man, the other said she saw 5-6 of them in pathani suits wearing masks and backpacks.

Responding to the incident immediately, the Navy, Coast Guard, Intelligence Bureau, National Security Guard (NSG), Force One, Coastal Police, Anti-Terrorism Squad, Crime Branch, Quick Response Team, Home Guards, Navi Mumbai Police, Mumbai Police and Thane Police all jumped into action. Shortly, the Maharashtra government released sketches of some of the terror suspects that looked like this:

But in strange turn of events, an Odisha news daily called Sambad published the sketch of a person looking eerily similar to journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.

Here is a closer look:

Does the sketch look eerily similar to journalist Rajdeep Sardesai? It did to many. In fact, Sardesai himself stepped in to report about it.

He blamed ‘bhakts‘ for it. While it prima facie appears to be a mischief, it’s not yet clear as to how the daily decided to carry it.

The paper, however, apologised to the journalist on Twitter and have also updated the sketch in their epaper. “Sir, we sincerely apologise for this grave error on our part,” they wrote.

Soon, Rajdeep accepted the apology, expressing his wish that the paper carried the apology as prominently as the false report.

The newspaper did the needful.