A series of photos showing deep gashes on the body of a young woman from Bihar is viral on social media with a false narrative that the woman was attacked by Muslims.
The three gruesome photos are from an incident in Gopalganj district in Bihar when a 20-year-old woman was attacked by one Sandeep Giri while she was on her way to a temple. The photos show deep wounds on the woman's shoulder and arms.
Local police told BOOM, that both accused and victim are Hindus.
The post is viral on Facebook with the caption, which loosely translates to, “See for yourself Hindu brothers how Muslims in Goplaganj district attacked an intermediate student and punctured her body with knife. Everyone remained a mute spectator. For how long will you let Muslims rape your sisters and daughters. Be ashamed of yourself.”
(“देख लो हिन्दूओं मूल्लो ने गोपालगंज जिला में इंटर के छात्रा को जान मारने के नियत से उसके शरीर पर चाकू से ताबड़तोड़ हमला किया गया। सब देखते रह गए किसी ने आवाज तक नहीं उठाई। कब अपनी मां बहन बेटियों की इज्ज़त मूल्लो के हाथो लूटबाते रहोगे । शर्म करो।”)
The post by Facebook user Roshan Pandey was shared close to 7,000 times at the time of writing this story. (Click here to view an archived version of the post)
Pandey is the state president of the Hindu Samaj Party. He removed the description from his profile following BOOM's story.
BOOM found news reports about the incident on news websites such as Dainik Jagran, SiwanNews, and Prabhat Khabar which reported that the incident happened in Nehrua Kala village in Kateya area of Gopalganj district.
The articles said accused Giri was attracted to the woman and would sometimes follow her. On the day of the incident, she called him out for eve teasing, which angered him and led to him attacking her with a knife.
BOOM also contacted Gopalganj police who confirmed there was no religious angle to the attack.
Gautam Kumar, SHO, Kateya in Gopalganj district, explained that the victim and the accused got into an argument following which Giri attacked her.
"The accused in the case is not a Muslim but a Hindu. While we are looking into whether the accused knew the victim, prima facie evidence shows he attacked her. We have arrested the accused and remanded him into custody."
The accused has been booked for physical assault and for causing grievous hurt to the woman.
He added that the photos of the woman showing her wounds were viral in neighbouring districts too with various captions and that the police were looking into curbing the spread of misinformation about the case.