Twinkle Gulia, 21, with over 64,000 followers on YouTube has posted five videos in the last four days, about the rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal. In all of them, Gulia is dressed in a lab coat with a stethoscope around her neck, depicting herself as the deceased victim with overlaid text and audio, ironically highlighting a sentiment echoed by the medicos across the country – that those who save the lives of others are unsafe.
The rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has left the country seething. Even as protests spread to several states with the medical fraternity garnering support and demanding stricter measures; it is on social media that the incident has become fodder for conspiracy theories, viral graphics, trending reels, misinformation and blatant flouting of laws surrounding victims of sexual assault.
The 31-year-old doctor was found dead in the Kolkata hospital on August 9, 2024 following her night shift. The family has since alleged mishandling of the incident and consequent investigation by the hospital authorities and police. The incident also led to mass outrage in Kolkata and amongst the medical fraternity, with several protests and candle light vigils demanding a safer environment for women and death penalty for the one arrested accused, a Sanjoy Roy.
“My mother is more affected by the incident,” YouTuber Gulia told Decode. A third year nursing student in Delhi herself, Gulia says her father tried to dissuade her from making regular content about the incident and going back to her fun vlogs.“It was my mother who intervened and asked my father if he would say the same if I was a victim. She says people should talk about this crime till there is concrete action taken towards ensuring the safety of women.”
Gulia said that her reels express a similar sentiment. “If a 1000 people watch my video and even one thinks about it, that is enough.”
Gulia’s videos, which contain all the trending keywords about the case, including the victim's name, get at least a million views on YouTube Shorts.
It is against the law and a punishable offence in India to publish and reveal the name of victims and survivors of sexual assault. But the victim’s name, images of her dead body and her photos from before the incident are viral and trending on social media platforms including X, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. The victim's family told Decode that they have appealed to the police to stop the spread of these photos and alleged that several influencers throng their house to take photos and videos.
Beauty and make-up influencer Mayazmakeover run by Mousumi Kundu uploaded a reel on August 14, a day before the Indian Independence Day, where using make-up she recreated injuries as seen in photos of the deceased doctor; a doctor’s white coat and stethoscope included for added effect. The reel also has special effects with viral audio, red strobe lights, and lightning and thunder added.
The caption and hashtags on the reel on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram all used the name of the victim. Kundu has more than 11 lakh followers across YouTube and Instagram and has been featured in several lists about Kolkata-based beauty content creators.
When comments started calling her insensitive for fictionalising the sexual assault and asking her not to reveal the victim’s name, Kundu in her caption said, “Poets write their poetry, novelists write novels, a painter paints to protest! I am a creator, so this is my way to speak up! So there’s nothing to be judged!” She added, “I cried 1000 times while shooting & editing this, but the point is to gather & to seek justice for her, for every woman out there where women are still unsafe! Is this what we call independence? I don’t think so…”
Kundu is one of the many beauty influencers who have taken to recreating the sexual assault and the state of the victim using makeup.
Some influencers have even depicted the victim being saved by an angry Indian Goddess.
Latching on to the same trend, Sheereen_Makeovers uploaded a Get Ready With Me (GRWM) reel on August 15, featuring first a woman applying makeup and then showing the same woman with injuries on her face, with blood splatters and wounds recreated using beauty products.
The post caption carried the name of the victim and peddled several conspiracy theories doing the rounds about the case including misinformation.
One such video by a make up artist where she acted like the deceased victim and used make up to show blood and injuries was misindentified as her last moments. BOOM debunked the same and found that it was a reel created by a Kolkata based make up artist Zeenat Rehman.
On YouTube, the hashtags calling for justice for the victim using her real name have 4.4k videos uploaded by 3.3K channels. The trend #rgkar, the name of the hospital where the victim was a doctor, has 14k videos. On Instagram, a search for the victim’s name showed several results— reels and posts with her photo and name. Some of the videos even have photos of her house, her parents and pictures sourced from her personal Instagram account.
A search on Google Trends, shows that since August 9, 2024 the victim's real name is a popular keyword search on YouTube. The data shows that her searches for her name spiked on August 17 and continue to rise. Results also show that users have been looking for photos of the victim; espcially that of her dead body.
The rape and murder of the young doctor has become a way to make viral content for internet influencers. This, even as the Kolkata police have issued 280 notices to social media users for revealing her name and spreading misinformation.
Take for example the video by popular educator Alakh Pandey, the founder of ed-tech platform PhysicsWallah on their NEET preparation page. After expressing his sadness about the incident, he goes on to peddle unverified claims floating on social media and WhatsApp about the crime. PhysicsWallah and its affiliate pages, all have more than 3-4 million subscribers with each video getting a similar view count.
While Pandey did not reveal her name or her photo, his fan pages have republished the same video using the victim’s name and photo and sensationalising the incident by calling it Nirbhaya 2.0
DECODE also noticed that the most common theme among content creators posting content about the incident was to give it a sensational fictionalised angle.
A Delhi-based YouTube and Instagram creator, _OyeSachin_ in his reel depicted a fictional story, depicting the victim as a doctor who saved his life and how the news of her rape and murder had a dire impact on him. The video has garnered more than 6 lakh views and carries hashtags with her name included.
But it is not only influencers using viral trends to talk about the incident, many from the medical field have also created content around the incident. The Resident Doctors’ Association of NIMHANS Bangalore posted a disturbing fictional skit on their official X handle featuring another woman as the Kolkata crime victim and made a fictional account of the crime including the struggle adding audio effects and screams and pleas to the same.
The video carried no hint of the identity of the woman but came with a disclaimer “All characters, events in skit, might resemble true incidents. However, it contains contents elaborated for artistic purposes.”
Another dentist-YouTuber Meghali who runs a channel with the same name, made a reel showing a fictional female trainee doctor at the ‘graduation ceremony’ of RG Kar Medical College where she is seen receiving applause from the audience but is prevented from accepting the degree by a pair of hands pulling and shoving her.
Prateek Waghre, executive director at Internet Freedom Foundation told Decode that the content of such creators falls in the 'grey area' which may make it hard for tech platforms to take them down through their automated process. "The only process is to report the disturbing content, or perhaps it may even work to ask the creators to take them down," he said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the removal of the name, photos and videos of a trainee doctor, who was raped and murdered in Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, from all social media platforms.
PTI reported, "The pictures and video clips of the body of the deceased has been circulating on social media...we direct that name, photographs and video clippings of the deceased be immediately removed from all social media platforms," the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said.
YouTuber Gulia asked why the authorities and investigators did not prevent her photos from being clicked, her name leaked and her parents' addresses and names made public.
A NEET coaching class account on Instagram uploaded a video showing one of its students as the victim, including depicting a struggle with a knife. Speaking to Decode on the condition of anonymity, the founder from Bihar said this was his attempt at creating awareness.
The idea for the video, he said, came from a female student. “The female medical students are the most scared right now," he told Decode.
“Yes, we have carried her name. Everybody is doing so, so will they arrest everybody?”
*Revealing the name of a sexual assault victim is a punishable offence under Indian law. Decode has blurred out the name and the images of the victim being used in the viral reels and posts.*