A distressing video of a woman gravely injured and bleeding in West Bengal's Joynagar area has surfaced with false communal claims that the incident happened in Bangladesh where a Hindu woman was attacked.
BOOM found that the incident is from South 24 Parganas district's Joynagar area in West Bengal where a woman named Latifa Khatun was found lying in a pool of blood on the night of January 21. Khatun later succumbed to her injuries.
Senior inspector Pradip Kumar Roy, officer-in-charge of the Bakultala Police Station which covers the jurisdiction of Joynagar confirmed to BOOM that the video is from Bakultala and not Bangladesh. He also denied any communal claim and stated that both the victim and the accused belonged to the Muslim community.
The video shows disturbing visuals of a woman writhing in pain as she tries to answer questions from a crowd surrounding her. She says she is from Murshidabad, a north Bengal district when asked about her whereabouts. Due to injuries inflicted on her mouth and face, the rest of the speech is gibberish.
BOOM has not included the video because of its graphic nature.
The viral video was shared on X with a Hindi caption that translates to: Naked women! Mother and sister stripped naked! Naked red freedom...!This is not a film shoot! This is an anti-Hindu picture of the new country of the Islamic Yunus government of Bangladesh which promotes extremism!
Fact Check: West Bengal Incident, Not Bangladesh
In the video the woman can be heard saying that she is from Murshidabad. Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search on Google and found an article published by Bartaman Patrika on January 23, 2025. According to the article a local e-rickshaw driver found the injured woman, lying on a brick pathway beside the paddy fields in the Anandapur Rathtala area under Bakultala area on January 21. The report also stated that the victim was alive when the locals found her and lost her life on the way to the village hospital.
Local news outlet Vision 18 Bangla also interviewed a local eyewitness who stated that he saw the woman when she was alive.
Anandabazar Patrika and Zee News also reported about the same.
No Communal Angle
A further keyword search led us to news reports from January 28, 2025, which identified the victim as one Latifa Khatun, a resident of Murshidabad and the accused as Giyasuddin Gazi. Gazi has since been arrested for killing Khatun as an act of revenge.
Hindustan Times Bangla reported that according to a confession by Gazi, he called Khatun to his home in Manirtat, Bakultala in an attempt to kill her.
Later the police arrested Gazi from Kultali police station area and was produced at the Baruipur sub-divisional court on January 28, Sangbad Pratidin reported.
We then reached out to senior inspector Pradip Kumar Roy, officer-in-charge (OC) Bakultala police station. Roy confirmed to BOOM that the viral video shows murder victim Latifa Khatun in her final hours before she succumbed to her injuries. Roy told BOOM, "It happened in Bakultala. The victim, Latifa Khatun, was beaten due to domestic problems. The accused, Giyasuddin Gazi, has been arrested and there is no communal angle to the incident."
With inputs from Srijit Das
