A disturbing video of a man stabbing a woman in a street in Berhampore, Murshidabad, is being shared online with false and communal claims that the assailant is a Muslim who killed a Hindu woman after she refused to accept Islam.
BOOM found that the viral claim is false and that there is no communal angle to the murder. Berhampore Police inspector Raja Sarkar confirmed to BOOM that the prime accused and the victim belong to the Hindu community.
The thirty second clip shows the accused in a red sweatshirt holding a knife in one hand and a phone in the other. The accused appears to be agitated and screaming at someone who is not in the frame. The body of a woman can be seen lying nearby.
'Welcome to Islamic State of Bengal Love Jihad case in Baharampur, Murshidabad. Hindu girl refused to accept his religion of peace so he stabbed her in public,' one of the captions with the video claims.
BOOM has not included the video as it contains graphic violence.
Click here to view an archive of the post.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra also quote tweeted the same video and falsely claimed that the murder was an incident of 'love-jihad'.
The tweet was later deleted.
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Fact Check
One of the tweets mentions the victim's name as 'Sutapa Chaudhary'. A Bengali keyword search on YouTube using the woman's name led us to a News 18 Bangla video published on May 3, 2022 about the murder.
The report carried the same visuals as the viral video.
The News 18 Bangla report, however, does not mention any communal angle to the murder. The report mentioned the name of the prime accused as Susanta Chowdhury.
We found a news article by the Hindustan Times which included the names of the victim and accused.
"A 20-year-old woman was hacked to death by a young man in front of a women's hostel at Berhampore in Murshidabad district. The victim has been identified as Sutapa Chowdhury, a college student. Police have arrested the assailant Susanta Chowdhury, 22," the Hindustan Times reported.
The report citing a police official stated that the accused was in a relationship with the woman who ended it and moved to Berhampore for her studies.
BOOM reached out to Berhampore Police. Berhampore Police inspector Raja Sarkar rubbished the 'love-jihad' claim made online.
"There is no communal angle to the incident," Sarkar told BOOM. "Both the prime accused and the victim belong to the Hindu community," he added.
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