New Delhi: An image of a woman hanging from a tree in a Rajasthan village has been widely shared on social media to falsely claim that she was raped and murdered by a Muslim. The woman was also falsely identified as a Dalit.
Many took to Facebook and Twitter Wednesday to share the image with captions that read: “It is heard that an 8-year-old girl from Sapotra, Rajasthan was raped by #नसीर_खान after which the body was hung from tree.”
सुना है की सपोटरा, राजस्थान की एक 8 वर्षीय बेटी का #नसीर_खान ने #बलात्कार के बाद #हत्या कर शव पेड़ से लटका दिया गया।
क्या ऐसे नरभक्षी को फासी होनी चाहिए…हाँ//ना pic.twitter.com/ZsVhMPcM2M
— Dकंगना^वत? (@Kaganawat_Dee) June 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/Rashmi0090/status/1275638153550987264?s=20
There were others who shared the same image on Facebook with captions that described the woman as a Dalit.
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Fact check
In reality, the news is from June 2019 and is a case of murder that took place in Rajasthan’s Sapotra village. Although the girl’s family alleged rape, police didn’t verify the charge.
A report in Dainik Bhaskar identified the girl as Pooja Meena, aged 19, and her alleged killer as Mahendra Meena, and not Naseer Khan, as was claimed in some social media posts.
Mahendra, according to the report, was in a relationship with the woman. A few days after the body was found, police arrested Mahendra, who killed her in order to hide the affair, said the report.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Pooja had stepped out at 12.30 am to relieve herself, but she didn’t return. Her father alleged that “some unidentified person abducted her, raped her and then killed her”.
Sapotra police station’s SHO Bhanwarlal Boonkar said, “As per doctor’s report, she was strangled first. Prima facie, it appears that in order to misguide the police, the accused hanged the body from the tree so that it looks like suicide. Moreover, the feet of the deceased were touching the ground, which indicates that she was hanged later.”
None of the reports mentioned that the woman was a Dalit.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.
Also read: Woman in viral image not Rajasthan’s minor gangrape victim but murdered wife of Haryana cop
Meena are officially claimed to be dalits …. thanks for exposing fake news .. n hope the communal tensions are not spread too
India seriously needs some way to reduce fake news. It is affecting us and our international image.
Twitter is the same. Nowadays I notice our people commenting offensive messages in posts between two leaders of two other countries on issues that doesn’t matter to them. Just because maybe china is involved as a topic.
Twitter we can’t control, but isn’t there any regulation on media? I mean I don’t want us to curb freedom of speech, but there should be consequences if newspapers print many factually incorrect news or report repeatedly without validation.