A graphic photo of a woman's body lying in the bushes has surfaced with a false claim that it shows the rape and murder of a Hindu woman in Bangladesh because she was from a minority community.
BOOM found that the incident has no communal angle and both the victim and the accused are from the same community.
The Claim
A verified handle on X , Voice Of Bangladeshi Hindus, posted the photo with the caption, “Breaking: A 60-year-old Hindu woman, Anna Bala Das, was raped and murdered in Sirajganj, Bangladesh. Her only crime? Being a woman from a minority. Where is the outrage?”
The image is graphic in nature. Readers' discretion advised.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
What We Found: No Communal Angle To The Incident
1. News Reports About The Incident: We ran a reverse image search on the photograph and came across multiple news reports from Bangladesh confirming that the body of a woman was found on farmland in Sirajganj near Salanga Islami High School on October 11, 2025. The reports identified the victim as a 45-year-old woman, Anna Rani Das.
We then performed a related keyword search in Bengali and found a news report published by Ajker Patrika on October 14, 2025, stating that Das was strangled to death after he made sexual advances at her. Salanga Police Station Officer-in-Charge Humayun Kabir confirmed to Ajker Patrika that police had arrested the accused, Tapas Kumar Das, who confessed to the murder on October 13, 2025, and gave a confessional statement in court.
2. Statement From Bangladesh Police: We also found a clarification on the official Facebook page of the Bangladesh Police regarding the viral communal claim. The police statement said that the accused, Tapas Kumar Das, groped the woman, and when she screamed for help and an argument followed, he grabbed her by the throat and fled the scene after killing her.