Incident of Boy's Murder in Bangladesh Shared With a False Communal Angle

The boy was killed by other students of his school in Bangladesh's Khulna when his father failed to give ransom.

Fact-check: A picture showing a dead body of a young boy from Bangladesh is going viral with false communal claims.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint) 

An image showing a young boy lying on the floor is going viral with a claim that a Hindu boy was murdered in Bangladesh by Muslims.

Who shared it?: Along with several social media users, Panchjanya, the mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), shared the picture to claim that Hindus are being killed in Bangladesh.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here, here and here.)

But what's the truth?: The image shows a 13-year-old boy from Khulna district, Bangladesh who was killed by his schoolmates. Of the five accused, four belonged to the Hindu community.

How did we find this out?: We performed a reverse image search on the image and that led us to news reports published by Bangladeshi news outlets. The reports were published on 3 February.

• A report by a Bangladeshi news outlet Dhaka Times 24 mentioned that the boy's body was found on 2 February in a room of Gutudia Akkur Chandra Goldar Bandhav (ACGB) High School in Dumuria Upazila of Khulna district in Bangladesh.

• The report added that the accused were from the same school and were held in connection with this matter.

The report was published on 3 February 2023.

(Source: Dhaka Times 24/ Screenshot)

• Another report by the state news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) stated that the juveniles decided to murder the boy after they failed to get ransom from his father.

• The report added that their crime was inspired by one of the episodes of the TV serial Crime Patrol.

Statements from the police: We contacted Shahed Siddique, Head of Input, Independent television from Dhaka, who reached out to Sheik Koni Mia, Officer In-Charge of Dumuria, the local police station.

• Mia confirmed that five students were detained. He added that all the accused are minors and got inspired by Crime Patrol to carry out this crime.

• "Only one of the accused, who is 15 years old, is a Muslim and the rest of them are Hindus, so no communal angle is involved in this murder," he added.

Conclusion: A picture showing a dead body of a young boy from Bangladesh is going viral with a false communal claim.

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