Fact-Check: Muslim youth with a knife threatens a Hindu woman for marriage in Indore?

A video of a man threatening a young woman with a knife while another stands behind her crying is viral on social media. She tries to reason with the perpetrator as he continues to threaten. The word ‘Indore’ can be seen superimposed on the screen. It is being claimed that the man hails from the Muslim community and this was another case of ‘love jihad’, a conspiracy theory according to which Muslim men are trained to ‘trap’ women of other faiths.

Twitter user Kajal Hindustani tweeted this video, claiming that a ‘love jihadi’ was entrapping Hindu girls by force. Hindu fundamentalists often use the word ‘Jihadi’ on social media to target Muslims.

Mukesh Kumar, channel head of Sudarshan News, quote-tweeted Kajal’s post, calling for the castration of such individuals. At the same time, he used a pejorative word for transgenders in the tweet. (Archived link).

A user named ‘Yogi Yogesh Agarwal’ also tweeted this video with the same communal claim. (Archived link)

यह देखो लव जिहादी हिंदू बच्चियों को केसे डरा धमका कर अपने जाल में फंसाते है😡अगर किसी भी बच्ची को कोई भी इस प्रकार से धमकाए तो डरने की जरूरत नही है तुरंत अपने घर वालो को जानकारी देकर पुलिस में रिपोर्ट दर्ज कराए*तो यह लोग अपने मकसद में कामयाब नही हो पाएंगे😡 pic.twitter.com/9FTTZ9Xnio

— योगी योगेश अग्रवाल (धर्मसेना) (@yogeshDharmSena) July 27, 2022

One Rajesh Keshri also tweeted the footage with the same claim. (Archived link)

Various other users amplified the video with the accompanying claim.

Fact-check

Alt News noticed the word ‘Indore’ on the screen. Using this as a clue, we performed a keyword search on Twitter, which led us to a July 26 tweet by Vikas Singh Chauhan, a Network18 journalist. He tweeted the video as an incident from the MIG police station area of Indore. He also mentioned that the name of the accused threatening the girl with a knife outside a cafe in broad daylight is Piyush alias Sanu, who has been arrested by the police.

#इंदौर के एमआईजी थाना क्षेत्र में बदमाश की करतूत कैमरे में कैद, दिनदहाड़े कैफे के बाहर युवती को चाकू से धमकाते कैमरे में कैद, #पुलिस ने सिरफिरे युवक को किया गिरफ्तार,युवती को धमकाने के बाद आरोपी ने खुद के गले पर भी रखा चाकू,आरोपी का नाम पीयूष उर्फ शानू, pic.twitter.com/a0vWQKRJvw

— vikas singh Chauhan (@vikassingh218) July 26, 2022

We performed a keyword search on Google and came across a News18 article dated July 27 covering the attack. According to the report, the incident occurred in the MIG police station area of ​​Indore. The assailant wanted to marry the girl by threatening her with a knife. After the video went viral, the police took cognizance of the matter, registered a case and arrested the accused. The police identified the accused as Piyush alias Sanu, who also confessed to his crime. They also recovered the knife that was used to threaten the woman. The article also contained a picture of the accused after he was arrested by the police. It further confirms that this is indeed the youth seen in the viral video.

We reached out to Gopal Meena, Head Constable of the MIG police station in Indore. He clarified that there was no communal or ‘love jihad’ angle in the matter. He identified the accused as Piyush Rawat, son of Bharat Singh Rawat. Head Constable Meena also confirmed that both the accused and the victim are Hindus, and the former was in police custody.

To sum it up, a video of a young man threatening a woman at knifepoint to force her into marriage was shared by social media users with a communal claim. In reality, both the victim and the accused are Hindus and there is no communal angle in the case.