Murder of A Girl in Rajasthan in 2019 Shared With Communal Spin

The name of the accused is not Naseer Khan as claimed, but Mahendra Meena, a police official told The Quint.

An old incident of a girl’s murder is being circulated with the false claim that the accused is a Muslim.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Pictures from an old incident which happened in 2019 in Rajasthan is now being falsely shared with a claim that a Dalit girl was raped and murdered by a Muslim man named Naseer Khan. It further goes on to say that the girl’s body was found hanging from a tree.

However, we found that the incident is not a recent one and the girl was murdered by a person whom she had a love affair with. The name of the accused is not Naseer Khan, but Mahendra Meena, a police official told The Quint.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

CLAIM

The post says that the incident happened “today” where a Dalit girl was allegedly raped, sparking a furore among the public.

The images shared by Facebook user ‘The Voice of The Oppressed of India’ had garnered over 900 shares at the time of publishing the article.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Some social media users also pointed out that the girl is eight years old.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Several Twitter users have shared the images with a similar narrative.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We found a Facebook post that had the same images as those in the viral ones and was shared on 22 June 2019.

A Facebook user had shared the same images in June 2019.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Further, using relevant keywords on Google, we found that an article published by Lallantop in 2019 also carried the same images.

The article mentioned that the body of a 19-year-old girl in Rajasthan’s Karauli (Sapotra is a tehsil in Karauli district) was found hanging from a tree. The family had then alleged that the girl was first raped and then murdered. However, the police officials told The Quint that the post-mortem report had confirmed that the girl had not been raped.

The girl’s father had then told the police that the incident occurred on the night of 20 June 2019 when she had gone out of the house and did not return for a long time.

Lallantop had reported about the incident in 2019.(Source: Lallantop/ Screenshot)

ACCUSED NOT A MUSLIM: POLICE

Speaking to The Quint, Khemendra, head constable, Sapotra police station confirmed that it is not a recent incident and the name of the accused is not ‘Naseer Khan’.

“The images are from June 2019. A case (232/19) was registered under sections 302, 201 of the IPC. The girl, Pinky alias Pooja, was not eight years old but around 20-22 years old. The name of the accused is Mahendra Meena, son of Bharat Lal, and he is 28 years old.”

Khemendra, head constable, Sapotra police station

Section 302 deals with punishment for murder and Section 201 deals with “causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender.”

The police official informed that the victim and the accused had a love affair and the accused was booked for murder and not rape. He further said that the accused is behind the bars right now.

A local reporter, too, corroborated with the aforementioned details.

“The accused is also a Meena and a distant relative of the victim. The girl was pressurising the accused to marry her even when he was already married.”

A local reporter to <b>The Quint</b>

News outlet Dainik Bhaskar, too, had then, reported about the incident mentioning that the name of the accused is Mahendra.

Evidently, an old incident is being circulated with a false communal claim.

(With inputs from SM Hoax Slayer)

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