A video of a grieving woman inside a crematorium has gone viral on social media, with posts falsely identifying her as the mother of the 31-year-old trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024.
BOOM found that the video predates the RG Kar rape and murder incident and was taken in July 2024. According to our fact-check, the video shows Tanya Kumar, sister-in-law of T-Series chairman Bhushan Kumar, attending the final rites of her daughter Tishaa Kumar - who had passed away after a battle with cancer - at a Mumbai crematorium.
Social media continues to be flooded with photos and videos disclosing the identity of the 31-year-old rape and murder victim in Kolkata, including by social media influencers, despite warning from the Supreme Court prohibiting such acts. Even a week after the initial court orders, a search for the victim's name still yielded thousands of results across Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, despite the revealing of identity of a sexual assault victim being illegal under Indian law.
The viral video also contains a thumbnail showing a photo of the RG Kar victim, accompanied by the unrelated video of the final rites.
Fact Check
BOOM performed a reverse image search on a keyframe from the viral video and discovered an Instagram post from July 22, 2024, identifying the woman in the video as Tanya Kumar. The caption further stated that she was attending her daughter Tishaa Kumar's final rites.
Taking cue from this, we ran a related keyword search and found multiple news reports from July 2024, along with paparazzi accounts sharing visuals of the same incident.
The official Instagram profile of Punjab Kesari's entertainment website, Tadka Bollywood, also posted the same video on July 22, 2024.
Click here to view the post.
The video was uploaded with the caption, "Heartbroken mother Tanya Kumar arrives for the final rites of her 20-year-old daughter Tishaa Kumar. The pain of losing a young daughter is unimaginable. Let’s join together in sending her strength and love during this heartbreaking moment."
Another Bollywood-centric YouTube channel, Movie Telly, posted a longer video of the incident, showing other members of the Kumar family, including Bhushan Kumar's wife, Divya Khossla, and his sister, Khushali Kumar.
We also found a report published by Business Standard on July 22, 2024, featuring visuals from Tishaa Kumar's funeral. The report states, "T-Series co-owner Krishan Kumar's daughter Tishaa Kumar passed away on July 18, 2024, at the age of 20 after a prolonged battle with cancer. Her funeral was held in Mumbai and several Bollywood celebrities, including Riteish Deshmukh, Saiee Manjrekar, Salman Khan's bodyguard Shera and others arrived to pay their last respects."
The report also mentioned that Tishaa Kumar was unable to recover from cancer, even after being taken to Germany for treatment.