Image of bleeding cow circulated with false claim that it was injured by Muslims

Trigger Warning: All images in this fact check have been blurred considering they could be distressful for many. However, the story details animal injuries. Reader discretion is advised. 

An image of a bleeding cow with deep lacerations on its neck is being widely circulated on social media with claims that Muslim ‘Jihadis’ inflicted the injuries on the animal.

Verified X account @shibbu87 (Sujeet Swami) shared the image with a Hindi caption, which sais that Kota’s Bajrang Dal alleged that ‘Jihadis’ gathered at an illegal shrine in Charanchowki, in the vicinity of the Kaithun police station in Rajasthan’s Kota attacked the cow with a weapon (Archive). ‘Jihadi’ is a derogatory way of referring to Muslims.

The user added that lack of action against ‘illegal’ shrines was encouraging such perpetrators and urged the police to take action. The user’s comment on ‘illegal’ shrines comes amid disputes over religious sites in several states where Hindu groups allege that mosques and other Islamic sites were built on erstwhile Hindu places of worship.

We checked active social media accounts of Bajrang Dal, Kota, but found no post related to this incident.

Swami’s post was further amplified by Sagar Kumar, a journalist with Sudarshan News. Note that Alt News has, on several occassions, called out misinformation and hateful content shared by this pro-Right outlet.

In his post, Kumar too said that cows needed to be saved from ‘Jihadis’. The tweet garnered more than 26,000 views and was reshared close to 1,500 times before it was deleted. However Alt News had managed to get a screenshot.

Fact Check

The official X handle of Kota Rural Police had responded to the X post by Sujeet Swami, clarifying that local residents had found the hurt cow who was bleeding from injuries caused by wires used to fence fields. The Kota police added that they found no evidence of anyone deliberately hurting the cow and that the animal was injured while entering a field.

The police also shared an 11-second video showing the wires in the field, which hurt the bovine.

To sum up, the image of the bleeding cow was circulated on social media with false communal claims that Muslims tortured and attacked the animal. As clarified by the police, the cow was hurt by wires used to fence the fields.