No, That’s Not Kapil Mishra’s Sister Marrying a Muslim Man

The image is from 2016 when Ashitha and Shakeel – a couple from Karnataka – had an interfaith marriage.

Image of a couple in wedding attire is being shared with a claim that the woman in the photograph is BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s sister who married a Muslim man.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Image of a couple in wedding attire is being shared with a claim that the woman in the photograph is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra’s sister who married a Muslim man.

However, we found that the image is as old as 2016 and shows a couple from Karnataka who had an interfaith marriage.

CLAIM

The claim along with which the aforementioned image is being circulated reads: “#दिल्ली में हिन्दू #मुसलमान के बीच दंगे कराने वाले #कपिल मिश्रा की बहन ने की #शहज़ाद अली से शादी कपिल_मिश्रा_और भक्तो_को_नया_जीजा_मुबारक_हो”

[Translation: We congratulate Kapil Mishra, the man who incited violence between Hindus and Muslims in Delhi, for the wedding of his sister to Shehzad Ali. And we also congratulate Bhakts for getting a new brother-in-law]

The image went viral on Facebook and Twitter with the same false claim.

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the page can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The two people who can be seen in the viral image are not related to BJP leader Kapil Mishra. The image is from April 2016 when Ashitha Babu and Shakeel Ahmed from Karnataka’s Mandya district got married.

A Google reverse image search directed us to several news reports detailing the event. A report by coastaldigest.com – a Karnataka-based news portal – mentioned that Ashitha and Shakeel, both MBA graduates, performed their wedding rituals amid tight security after opposition from “Hindu extremists”.

(Source: coastaldigest.com/Screenshot)

Another report by The Indian Express dated 24 April 2016 stated that “on 17 April, Ashitha and Shakeel of Mandya city, both 29, got married, after 12 years of courtship”.

A report by NDTV which carried the same image further claimed that outside the bride's home in Mandya, right-wing Hindu activists protested against the wedding calling it "love jihad" and alleging that Shakeel, a Muslim man, was forcing Ashitha, who is Hindu, to convert to Islam by marrying her.

Evidently, an old image of a couple from Mandya in Karnataka is being shared with a false claim that it shows Mishra’s sister marrying a Muslim man.

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