The dismembered body of a 29-year-old woman was discovered inside a refrigerator in her home in Bengaluru’s Vyalikaval neighbourhood on Saturday, September 21. The victim, identified as Mahalakshmi, worked at a costume outlet in Malleshwaram and lived alone in a rented house in Vinayaka Nagar, Vyalikaval.
Once the gruesome crime made headlines, speculation began circulating online, with many claiming that a man named Ashraf was responsible for her death. In no time, communal narratives flooded public discourse with many claiming, directly or indirectly, that it was a case of ‘Love Jihad’ where a Muslim man entered a relationship with a Hindu woman and killed her.
Aman Chopra from News 18 India led the amplification of this theory and made several communally charged remarks in a bulletin hosted by him. Drawing a comparison to the Shraddha Walkar case, where the 27-year-old woman was murdered by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawalla in Delhi in May 2022, Chopra stated: “…Remember how Shraddha Walkar was cut into pieces and put in a fridge. The same thing has happened in Bengaluru. The name has changed—from Shraddha to Mahalakshmi. More than 50 pieces of Mahalakshmi’s body were found in a fridge. Before, the accused was Aftab, now the family is blaming Ashraf…” He repeatedly emphasized Ashraf’s name, suggesting a recurring pattern of Muslim men killing their Hindu partners — a conspiracy theory frequently echoed within Right-wing circles.
Chopra shared a part of the coverage in a tweet and wrote, “…Earlier it was Shraddha, this time it’s Mahalakshmi. The name has changed, the modus operandi is the same.”(Archive)
इस बार 50 से ज़्यादा टुकड़े करके फ़्रिज में रखे गये।
पहले श्रद्धा थी,
इस बार महालक्ष्मी है।नाम बदला,
modus operandi वही है।— Aman Chopra (@AmanChopra_) September 23, 2024
The official X handle of BJP Karnataka amplified the claim that Ashraf was responsible for Mahalakshmi’s murder. In a tweet, they directly claimed Ashraf was the murderer and that Congress’s appeasement policies had led to a collapse of law and order. (Archive)
Under @INCKarnataka rule, appeasement policies have led to a complete collapse of law and order. The brutal murder of Mahalakshmi by Ashraf is a clear reminder that Kannadigas are no longer safe in this Hitler-led @siddaramaiah government. We urge Congress ministers not to… pic.twitter.com/eWt2IOK1UV
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) September 22, 2024
Vice-president and spokesperson of ISKCON Kolkata Radharamn Das, known for spreading communal misinformation, also tweeted the same claim. “Another body of a Hindu girl found in Abdul’s fridge. This story will keep repeating, and those Hindu girls still with an Abdul will keep thinking, ‘My Abdul is different.’…”, wrote Das. (Archive)
Right-wing influencer @MrSinha_, who amplifies communal propaganda on a regular basis, tweeted twice on the matter (tweet 1, tweet 2), each time stressing the fact that a certain ‘Ashraf’ was the perpetrator. (Archive)
RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya and Right-wing influencers and propaganda handles Kajal Hindustani, Jaipur Dialogues, Rishi Bagree, Ashwini Shrivastava, Sanjeev Newar (the man behind Gems of Bollywood), lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha and Ajeet Bharti, echoed the same claim in their tweets. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Other users also amplified the viral claim. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Fact Check
According to reports, Mahalakshmi, 29, was married to Hemant Das, who lives in Nelamangala and runs a mobile accessory shop. The couple also has a child. After separating from her husband, she lived with her brother Hukum Singh and his wife. The two siblings had a spat and Singh subsequently moved out with his wife. The victim lived alone since. According to the victim’s mother’s testimony, the victim had last spoken to her mother on September 2 and informed her that she would visit her estranged husband soon. Her murder was discovered on September 21.
Das subsequently expressed suspicions about a man, he claimed she had an affair with. He explained that the couple had been separated for nine months due to marital differences after six years of marriage. He revealed that he suspected a man named Ashraf, who worked at a salon in Nelamangala, to be involved in the incident. According to Hemant, Mahalakshmi had an affair with Ashraf. He further mentioned that Mahalakshmi had filed a complaint against Ashraf a few months ago at the Seshadripuram police station, accusing him of blackmail.
However, the police did not name Ashraf as the prime accused. They, in fact, interrogated him and let him off.
In a statement on September 23, Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda said the prime suspect in the case ‘had been identified’. He was an outsider and was absconding at that time. The police remained tight-lipped about his identity and additional details of the incident.
The case took a significant turn when the prime suspect was found dead in Odisha, having died of ‘suicide’. The body of the accused, Muktirajan Pratap Ray, was found hanging from a tree in Bhuinpur village in Odisha’s Bhadrak district on the morning of Wednesday, September 25. The accused was from Bhuinpur village. Most reports mentioned the name as Mukti Ranjan Ray.
According to Bhadrak SP Varun Guntupalli, before the Bengaluru police team could apprehend the accused, Mukthirajan died by suicide by hanging himself. A suicide note was found in which he had admitted to committing the murder.
Mahalakshmi murder case | Odisha | SP Bhadrak, Varun Guntupalli says, ” A team of Bangalore Police had come here to probe the recent murder of a woman there. The team said that the prime accused belonged to Bhadrak. Before the team could apprehend the accused, Mukthirajan died by… pic.twitter.com/RpRqBqpYXb
— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2024
The SP told TOI, “We strongly suspect that he ended his life fearing arrest in connection with the Bengaluru murder…”
Ray and Mahalakshmi had been colleagues since 2023. While questioning people associated with Mahalakshmi, the investigating officers found that Ray had been absconding for some time. Both Mahalaskhmi and Ray had not come to work after September 1. Police then contacted Ray’s brother who informed them that Ray had called him from West Bengal and confessed to committing the murder. Ray’s brother had asked him to leave the state. Ray then went to his village in Odisha.
Hence, the murder of 29-year-old Mahalakshmi was not a case of ‘Love Jihad’, and the key accused was not a Muslim. The claims made by several journalists, Right-wing influencers and platforms to that effect are false. Mahalakshmi was murdered by his colleague, a Hindu by faith, who subsequently committed suicide.
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