Ghaziabad: 2022 incident of woman’s murder by suspecting lover shared with false ‘Love Jihad’ claims

Several users have claimed on social media that a young woman named Asha, a resident of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, was brutally assaulted and murdered by her lover, Nadeem when she refused to convert to Islam. Several people amplified the claim with the ‘Love Jihad’ angle and shared pictures of the victim and the accused.

Twitter user Deepak Sharma (@TheDeepak2023) shared the images on June 1, 2023, with the caption: “Name- Asha, Resident- Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Result- Lover Nadeem inserted an iron rod from below and took it out of her mouth. Ghaziabad’s extremely intelligent, Asha used to go to drink juice every day, it was not known when she fell in love with Nadeem while drinking juice. Asha refused to change her religion when Nadeem asked her to. The result is in front of you.” The tweet received over 2,000 likes and was retweeted 1,623 times. The account was later suspended by Twitter.

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Twitter Blue user Sanju Tiwari (@SanjuTiwarri), who has over 26,000 followers, also shared the viral claim, adding that the purpose of his tweet was to spread awareness among Hindu girls. (Archive)

नाम- आशा, निवासी- गाजियाबाद उत्तर प्रदेश,
अंजाम- प्रेमी नदीम ने लोहे की रॉड नीचे से डालकर मुँह से निकाल दी, गाजियाबाद की बेहद तेज तर्रार आशा रोज़ जूस पीने जाती थी, जूस पीते पीते कब नदीम से मोहोब्बत हुई पता न चला, नदीम ने धर्म परिवर्तन को बोला तो आशा ने मना किया। अंजाम सामने है,… pic.twitter.com/YN47iReMoM

— Sanju Tiwari 🕉️ (@SanjuTiwarri) June 1, 2023

A twitter account by the name of ‘Manish Kashyap (Son of Bihar) Parody’ also amplified the claim. The tweet received over 9,500 likes and was retweeted over 4,000 times.

The post also went viral on Facebook.

Fact Check

A keyword search led us to a tweet by Ghaziabad Police from September 20, 2022, in which they reported that a man named Nadeem was arrested for murdering Asha Devi. The tweet contained a detailed report of the case. It stated that Suman alias Asha Devi lived separately from her husband and children. She and Nadeem had developed a mutual relationship. However, Nadeem suspected Asha to be involved in multiple affairs and hence on the night of September 17 last year, Nadeem murdered Asha by stabbing her multiple times with an axe and later dumped her blood-stained clothes near a local temple. Hence, it is worth noting that the incident is almost a year old and the ‘Love Jihad’ angle, which suggests Nadeem trapped Asha in a romantic relationship in order to convert her, is baseless.

थाना नन्दग्राम पुलिस द्वारा दिनांक 17-09-22 को महिला की हत्या की घटना का किया सफल अनावरण, घटना कारित करने वाला हत्यारा अभियुक्त गिरफ्तार,कब्जे से घटना मे प्रयुक्त आला कत्ल धारादार कुल्हाडी बरामद। pic.twitter.com/ieLP5bmLH1

— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE GHAZIABAD (@ghaziabadpolice) September 20, 2022

The Police report states: “During the interrogation, the accused said that about a year ago he had met Suman alias Asha Devi, who then started meeting each other frequently and both of them had a mutual relationship… The deceased used to live separately from her husband and children and Nadeem fell in love with her. However, when he called her once or twice, he found her phone busy for a long time. Nadeem suspected that Suman alias Asha Devi had relationships with other people. The accused objected to her talking to anyone over the phone late at night, but the deceased did not listen to her. Angered by this, on the night of 17.09.2022, Nadeem went to Suman alias Asha Devi’s room with an axe and a pair of clean clothes in his bag and after dinner, both of them spoke and fell asleep. When Suman alias Asha Devi was sleeping at around 03.00 am, Nadeem attacked Suman alias Asha Devi with the axe on her neck. As soon as she was attacked, she fell down from the bed. Abhi Nadeem stabbed her in the back with the axe and killed her…. He later dumped her blood-stained clothes near a temple on the bypass road.”

 

The ACP of Nandgram released a statement on Twitter on June 1, 2023, with the caption, “Today, on 01.06.23, a tweet was received on social media, due to which social and communal harmony was likely to deteriorate. The tweet of that Twitter handle was quickly denied, necessary action is being taken by registering charges against that Twitter handle~ ACP Nandgram.”

आज दिनांक 01.06.23 को सोशल मीडिया पर एक ट्वीट प्राप्त हुआ जिससे सामाजिक व सांप्रदायिक सौहार्द बिगड़ने की संभावना थी ।शीघ्रता से उस टि्वटर हैंडल के ट्वीट का खंडन किया गया, उस ट्वीटर हैंडल के विरुद्ध अभियोग पंजीकृत कर आवश्यक कार्यवाही की जा रही है~एसीपी नन्दग्राम। pic.twitter.com/5udxGsD8Od

— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE GHAZIABAD (@ghaziabadpolice) June 1, 2023

The tweet also carried a notice by Ghaziabad Police stating that the incident happened on September 17, 2022, in Ghaziabad, UP, the same day when Nadeem was arrested by UP police. A case was filed under section 302 IPC and the accused was also arrested. The notice also mentions that a Twitter handle by the name Manish Kashyap (Son of Bihar) Parody initially amplified the false news.

We also came across a 2022 report by ETV Bharat, titled ‘जूस बेचने के दौरान हुआ प्यार, लव मैरिज के बाद कुल्हाड़ी से काट डाला, जानें क्यों‘. The viral images are included in it. The report stated that the two shared a mutual relationship and that Nadeem had murdered Asha with an axe suspecting her involvement in multiple affairs. Hence, it is clear that the incident is from 2022 and the accused Nadeem, was in a mutual relationship with Asha. The claims of ‘Love Jihad’ are, therefore, false.

Abira Das is an intern at Alt News.