Three of Bangladeshi Hindu family killed by relative: Crime falsely communalized by Indian X users

Trigger Warning: Murder, Photos of Dead Bodies

Images of the corpses of three members of a Bangladeshi Hindu family are circulating on the internet with the claim that ‘Islamists’ murdered them.

Verified X handle @ajaychauhan41, who has been called out by Alt News for amplifying misinformation several times in the past, tweeted the images along with a video report of the incident, and claimed that Bikash Sarkar, his wife Swarna Sarkar and daughter Parmita Sarkar Tushi had been murdered by Islamists in the Sirajganj district of Bangladesh. (Archive)

Another verified user, Izlamic Terrorist (@raviagrawal3), tweeted the same set of images and asked, “This is Islam…?”. (Archive)

Several other users also amplified the viral claim. (Archives- 1, 2)

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Fact Check

Taking a cue from the viral claims, we performed a keyword search in Bangla. Several reports from Bangladeshi outlets indicated that the deceased person Bikash Sarkar’s nephew Rajib Bhowmik had been arrested in the case.

According to a press release by police that these reports refer to, in a confession to cops, Bhowmik reportedly revealed that he and his uncle, Bikash Chandra Saha, dealt in fish food. Sarkar lent his nephew 20,00,000 Taka to support his business. When he demanded his money back, the relationship between the uncle and the nephew deteriorated.

On the evening of January 27, Bhowmik went to his uncle’s house. Finding him not at home, he sent his aunt Swarna (40) to get him some coffee. During her absence, he killed his cousin, Paromita aka Tushi (15). When his aunt returned, he used an iron rod to knock her unconscious and then used a sickle to slit her throat. Later, the accused called up his uncle, Bikash, asking him to come home. When he arrived, Bhowmik killed him using the same method.

After murdering all three of them, Rajib locked his uncle’s house and fled the scene. According to reports, he threw the iron rod into a water body and took the sickle home with him.

Here, here and here are local reports from Bangaldesh that corroborate this information.

We also found a video on Facebook uploaded by a member of the Model Press Club in Tarash, Sirajganj. In the video, cops can be seen retrieving the weapons used in the crime, and the accused, Rajib Bhowmik, is also present at the scene. As has already been reported, the sickle was retrieved from Bhowmik’s home and the iron rod was retrieved from a water body.

Hence, a triple murder case in which three members of a Hindu family were brutally killed by their own relative has been falsely communalised on social media.