An image of a half-burnt body of a woman is shared on social media. It is being claimed that she is Payal Jain, a 13-year-old girl, who was raped and burnt by one Rizwan Ansari. The image is circulating in the backdrop of a national outrage over the alleged gang-rape of a Dalit woman in UP’s Hathras who succumbed to her injuries on September 29. Facebook user Ashok Singh posted the image with the viral claim. At the time of writing this article, the post was shared more than 1,700 times. We have blurred the image of the body due to its graphic nature.
The image was also shared on Facebook group ‘आरएसएस समर्थक (RSS supporters) Group’. It has been shared over 1,100 times.
It is also being shared on Twitter.
Fact-check
With a Google reverse image search, we found that the same image was tweeted by Congress member Gaurav Pandhi on October 2, 2020. The tweet also carried a clipping of news report dated September 30. According to the Indore Samachar news clipping, the incident is from Manawar village of Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district. At the time when this report was published, the police were still investigating the matter.
On October 4, Dainik Bhaskar reported that a man along with his friend shot a woman and later burnt her body. The man wanted to cut ties with the woman whom he was in love with. According to the report, the name of the accused are Govind and Sohan.
In a conversation with Alt News, Dhar SP Aditya Pratap Singh said that the incident has no communal angle to it. Both the accused and the victim are from the Bhil community. He further informed that while the police has arrested Sohan, Govind is still absconding. You can watch a video from Dhar SP’s press conference here.
The Quint had earlier fact-checked this image on October 5.
Therefore, an image of a woman who was shot and immolated over a personal dispute in Madhya Pradesh was shared on social media with a false communal angle. It was falsely claimed that a Muslim man in Rajasthan raped and later burnt a 13-year-old girl from the Hindu community. Earlier, an image of a woman constable who died in a road accident in Punjab was given a false narrative of rape and murder on social media.
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