Images of an inter-faith couple are being shared along with a photo of a dead body surrounded by police personnel to make a false claim that it is a case of "love jihad" where the woman, a Hindu, was murdered by her Muslim husband after their wedding.
The photo is being shared with an unrelated image from Uttar Pradesh of a corpse found in a suitcase to make a claim true. BOOM spoke to the couple who hail from Dehradun and found that they are well and alive and have filed a complaint against the fake posts.
The viral photo is a collage - first showing the couple where the woman is dressed as a traditional Hindu and then a photo where she has a hijab covering her head and claims it shows the 'Before' and 'After'. The collage then shows a photo of police personnel around a suitcase which has a woman's corpse stuffed in it.
The photos are being shared with the caption that reads, "Love Jihaad always Ends at the deàth of Hindu Girl."
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Madhu Purnima Kishwar had also quote tweeted the viral post. BOOM has earlier fact-checked Kishwar for sharing misinformation.
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Viral on Facebook
On searching with the same caption we found that the photos are being shared on Facebook with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
A reverse image search of the photos of the couple led to a Twitter post from July 28, 2020, that identified the couple as residents of Gorakhpur Chowk, Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
BOOM then reached out to Patel Nagar police station in Dehradun who confirmed that the couple is safe and refuted the claim that the husband had murdered his wife as being shared on social media. We then reached out to the couple, Surabhi Chauhan and Ehkam Faride who got married in June 2020.
Chauhan told us, "This is completely false, I am fine and nothing has happened to me. Photos of us have been circulating on social media ever since our wedding and we approached the police after it came to our notice."
The same was confirmed by Monica Manral, sub inspector in Dehradun Police who said, "A few days after the wedding which was in June, these photos started circulating on social media after which the woman - Surabhi Chauhan, approached us. We spoke to her and she said that she is happy with her husband and they are completely safe and sound. The woman also alleged that her family members are behind this as they are unhappy with the marriage."
When asked about the third photo of corpse in a suitcase, Manral said, "That photo is not even from Dehradun and is being falsely shared that Subrabhi Chauhan has been killed, as we spoke to the couple in person and they are alive."
Surabhi and Ekham also shared with us a photo of them together which matched with the first two photos of the couple which are being shared.
Photo sent by Surabhi to BOOM
Photo Of Body In Suitcase Is from Ghaziabad
A reverse image search using Google for the third photograph showed news reports from July 2020 which stated that a body of an unidentified woman stuffed inside a bag was recovered by the police in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
BOOM contacted Ghaziabad Police, who confirmed the incident and said that the unidentified woman's body was found in July. They stated that body is yet to be identified yet and an investigation has been initiated.
Abhishek Verma, Superintendent of Police refuted the claim that the case is related to the interfaith couple seen in the viral photos and stated that the body remains unidentified.
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