The brutal killing of 27-year-old Shraddha by her partner shocked the whole nation deeply. Almost every day we hear such heinous cases which raise serious concerns about the status of women’s safety in the country. However, Shradha’s case has taken a new spin because of the religion of her murderer. After the incident, Love Jihad has become a highly debated topic on social media platforms.
There has been a rise in propagating criminal incidents as ‘love jihad’ or targeting a particular community for any mishappening. Incidents that are misleadingly termed as Love-Jihad. Also, several social media posts are surfacing on the internet in which criminal incidents are being projected to target a particular community. Even many verified social media users are involved in using these criminal incidents to amplify hateful Hindu-Muslim narratives. Here is a list of 10 such incidents which went viral with the wrong communal color:
Claim 1: man killed his girlfriend in a resort.
A post went viral on social media with the claim that a Muslim man killed her girlfriend and made a video narrating the whole incident. Social media users are sharing the video with the caption, “VDO of #Jihadi youth who strangled a girl in Jabalpur’s Mekhla resort is going viral! By slitting the girl’s throat, he said, “don’t be unfaithful!”
Reality: On reverse image search of different key phrase of the video, we found a report of India Today in which it was mentioned that the name of accused man is identified as Hemant Bhadade. Both the victim and accused were of the same community. And, both were not Muslims. Therefore, viral posts claiming the man to be Muslim are fake.
Claim 2: A woman was found dead and naked in a suit case.
Social media users are sharing two videos simultaneously. In one video of a girl in which she can be heard saying that “she does not care, what people say about her relationship with a Muslim boy. In the other video, a suitcase was found in which there was the dead body of a woman. Sharing the video a Twitter user wrote, “Another case of love jihad. Mera Abdul aisa nahi hai, Secular Feminist spoiled Hindu girls from a big house and their parents who support them in this matter, watch this videoFirst video and then in suitcase, you deserve this.!!” -English Tranlation
Reality: On reverse image search the DFRAC team found that the woman named Priyanka who was found naked in the suitcase was murdered by her husband Rahul. There is no communal angle involved in this incident.
Claim 3: Girl murdered by her boyfriend and was stuffed in suitcase.
Social media users shared a photo with the caption, “The daughter had died inside. What happened to the daughter? The same deadly disease “My Abdul is different”! #stoplovejihad – EnglishTranlaition
Another user wrote, “It is a shame that this is happening in the world’s largest democracy. The government should bring a strict law regarding love jihad.”
Reality: Both were distant relatives and Muslim. The accused is being identified as Gulzeb Hussain and the victim girl wa Ramsha who was the daughter of Rashid.”
Claim 4: Another dead girl found in a suitcase
Anchor Anchal Yadav shared a photo of a dead girl in a suitcase with the caption, “Police will catch how many Aaftabs every day a new Aaftab is coming out from every district every. Everyday, sometimes suitcases and sometimes bodies of sisters are coming out from the fridge. Wake up enough is enough, roaming in every street to erase you #Abdul. Location -Mathura Yamuna Express #AftabAminPoonawala#MeraAbdulAisaNahiHai.”
Reality: Victim is Ayushi Yadav killed by her parent. We got a video on the verified account of Mathura Police on this matter captioned as “Byte given by the Additional Superintendent of Police, Mathura, in connection with successfully unveiling the heinous murder (honour killing) of an unknown girl in a red trolley bag and arresting the girl’s parents along with the murder and the car used in the incident.”
Claim 5: Hindu girl treated badly after Marrying to Muslim
A social media shared a video in which it was written that, “Hindu girls madly in love with “Muslim boys” plight” not only here !!! also in states like UK (America) “Hindu girls are suffering the fruits of their stupidity. -English Translation
Reality: The same video was posted by REBORN on July 6, 2021. It was mention there, In Krasnodar, they beat and humiliated a young gypsy woman who wanted to escape to the guy in Ukraine. They beat their own relatives. According to some reports, she alone kept unemployed father and brothers. And then they ask why everyone hates them.” Therefore, the incident is old and not of India. The girl was beaten by her own relatives.
Claim 6: Muslims eve-teased Hindu girls
Along with a video a user named @Nageswa01823085 captioned: “Viral video from women college #TamilNadu, where Muslim boys are eve- teasing # Hindu girls, even assaulted father of a girl who came to pick his daughter, for objecting.”
Reality: To analyze the reality of the viral video the team of DFRAC did a reverse image search and found that The Hindu has covered this news. The headline- “Viral video of a ruckus at #TamilNadu women’s collages shared with communal spin.”
Claim 7: Hindus beat up Muslims who used to tease Hindu girls
A social media user shared some picture with caption, “Hindus woke up Hindus molested Hindu girls by entering inside the mosque. *And ran and got beaten* *Jai Jai Shri Ram* Long live Hindu unity.”
Reality: The picture is of an incident were mob abruptly beat the Namazi. No eve teasing was there. After the incident many were booked for allegedly vandalising a Gurugram mosque and attacking the people inside.
Claim 8: Muslims abduct and rape a Hindu woman in Ghaziabad
National Spokesperson – VHP Vinod Bansal claimed, “In Ghaziabad Shahrukh, Javed, Aurangzeb, Zaheer and Dinu etc #IslamicSexGang after gangraping a girl for two days, the gruesome incident of throwing sacks filled with rods into her private part has reminded of the Nirbhaya case. @Uppolice has arrested 5 jihadists but lot more is required…”
Reality: The story was fabricated by the woman. No such incident occurred. the Ghaziabad Police, revealed a false incident shown by a woman conspiring with her accomplices in a case related to Nandgram police station.
Claim 9: Muslim man beating Hindu wife trapped in a love Jihad after marriage
Social media users are sharing a video with the cation, “How a girl trapped in love jihad eats shoes every day, on the matter of lighting a lamp on her child’s birthday. because lighting a lamp is forbidden in Islam, so Abdul’s mind got disturbed seeing the lamp. Secular Hindu girls see their reality.”
Reality: The man in the video is being identified as Mohammed Mushtaq and the woman is Ayesha Bannu. Both are Muslim. No communal angle is involved in it.
Claim 10: Muslim youth was going to kill a Hindu girl in love jihad
Sharing the video, a user wrote- “This is a Jihadi who trapped the girl in a live trap for his Jihad and came here to kill the girl by mixing her food and drink with. Now how much one can explain?” -English Translation
Reality: The incident is 3 years old. It was covered by Prabhat Khabar. According to the report, the youth who is being falsely described as a Muslim, is Arvind Kumar. There is no communal angle in this incident
Conclusion
All the above incidents are heinous crimes. Such incidents are a matter of grave concern on the issue of women’s safety in the country. However, there has been a rise in false and misleading claims related to such incidents which are being spread to incite communal hatred. These misleading posts show that the focus is on ‘communalizing crime’ more than ‘justice’
