Murder Over Inter-Caste Relationship In Hyderabad Peddled With Communal Claim

News wire agency Indo Asian News Service (IANS) misreported the killing of a Dalit man in Hyderabad by relatives of the woman he was in a relationship with, as an inter-faith honour killing.

Right wing websites OpIndia Hindi, Hindu Post and English daily The Free Press Journal made the same false claim based on IANS's story.

However, BOOM spoke to local police and found that there is no communal angle to the murder. We found that the deceased Devarakonda Harish - a Dalit, was in a relationship with a woman belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) community.

In an article dated March 3, 2023, IANS reported the incident stating, "In a suspected case of honour killing, a youth has been murdered allegedly over an inter-faith marriage on the outskirts of Hyderabad."

Other social media users, too, tweeted about the incident claiming that the Hindu man was killed for marrying a Muslim woman.

Click here to view the tweet.

Meanwhile right wing websites OpIndia Hindi and Hindu Post also published reports reiterating the same communal claim. Hindu Post later updated its article.

Fact Check

BOOM found that the claim is false, as it is a case of an inter-caste murder and not an inter-faith one.

Devarkonda Harish Kumar - a 28 year old Dalit man - was hacked to death for eloping with his girlfriend Manisha (25)- who hails from the OBC community. The victim was murdered by Manisha's brother - Deendayal and his friends on March 1, 2023 in Petbasheeraba, Hyderabad.

We ran a related keyword search and found several news reports about the killing in Hyderabad, Telangana.

A report by The News Minute, published on March 4, 2023, states, "A 28-year-old Dalit man from the Mala community was hacked to death in Hyderabad for eloping with a woman belonging to Valmiki Mehtar community, which is also categorised as Scheduled Caste. The victim, Devarkonda Harish Kumar, was waylaid and hacked to death in the Petbasheerabad locality on Wednesday, March 1. Police have arrested five persons involved in the murder, and are looking for another accused who is absconding."

The report further added, "On March 1, Manisha’s brother found out that the couple were getting married at a temple in Dulapally. Manisha’s brother, identified as Deendayal, along with his friends followed the couple on motorcycles, intercepted them and attacked Harish with knives. Harish suffered stab injuries in his head and chest in the attack and died on the spot."

We also found a The Indian Express report from March 6, 2023, stating that the Cyberabad police on Sunday made an announcement saying the ten of the eleven accused in the case are now arrested.

BOOM then reached out to Petbasheerabad SHO Gouri Prashanth to get further details about the case. SHO Prashanth confirmed that there is no communal angle to the incident.

He said, "No one in this case is a Muslim. They are from the same religion. The victim belongs to the scheduled caste and the accused's sister is from the other backward class community".

Prashanth also sent us the police press release that mentioned the names of accused in the case.

The police, according to the press release, arrested Deen Dayal (22), Trimukhe Naresh (20), Potlacheruvu Venkatesh Goud (20), Kalibhavaniwale Rohith Singh (20), Band Venkat (still at large), Gaddam Akshay Kumar (22), Parwary Aniketh (21), Koyalkar Manish (23), Bure Sainath (21), Mathangi Rajendra Kumar (25), Gouti Navanitha (30) for their alleged involvement in the murder.