CLAIM
A video on social media claims that a Hindu girl in Rajasthan was first raped by Muslim men and then was brutally killed. It further alleges that the police is not taking any action because the area to which those men belong is a Muslim-dominated area. The claim along with the video reads:
‘राजस्थान की एक हिन्दू लड़की को कुछ मुसलमान लड़को ने घर में लेे जाकर बलात्कार किया और फिर लड़की को बड़ी बेरहमी से मार डाला, और वहा की पुलिस भी कुछ नहीं कर रही है, क्योंकि जहां के वो लड़के है वहा मुसलमानों की आबादी ज्यादा है। कहा गई सरकार और कहा गई बेटी बचाओ का नारा देने वाले। मैं हाथ जोड़ता हूं इस वीडियो को इतना फैलाओ की इसकी आवाज मीडिया वालों और सरकार तक पहुंचे। क्योंकि ये हुआ है वो कल आपके साथ भी हो सकता है, इसकी जगह अपनी बहन को रख कर देखो और क्या करना चाहिए ऐसे लोगो के साथ ? आप से हाथ जोड़कर विनती है कि ये वीडियो हर ग्रुप में दिखना चाहिए ताकि इसकी आवाज हिंदुस्तान के सभी लोगो को सुनाई देनी चाहिए।’’
(Translated: A Hindu girl from Rajasthan was raped by some Muslim men in her house and then was brutally killed, and the police is not doing anything because the population of the Muslims is much higher in the area where those men belong to. Where is the government and where are the people who chant ‘Beti Bachao’ slogans. I fold my hands to request to spread this video so much that its voice reaches the media and the government. Because what happened can happen with you tomorrow, put your sister in place of her, and what should be done with such people? By joining hands, I request that this video should be seen in every group so that all the people of India should listen to it)
The Quint received a query about the claim and found the video on Twitter with the same claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim around the video is false. Firstly, the video is not from Rajasthan but Brazil. Secondly, the incident is not of Muslim men killing Hindu girl. But of a 19-year-old Brazilian woman who was killed in 2018 by a rival drug gang.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We reverse searched the video which led us to an article published by New Straits Times in 2018. The article is titled as ‘Police: Viral video of woman being beheaded nothing to do with Sarawak murder.’ The article mentioned that the video had gone viral in Malaysia and police had denied that it was from Malaysia. Rather, the police reportedly stated that the incident is from a country in South America.
Consequently, we did a search on TweetDeck, a dashboard application for management of Twitter accounts using keywords ‘girl beheaded stabbed.’ This led us to a tweet which suggested that the video is from Brazil.
Further, taking a cue from the tweet, we searched on Google that led us to an article which had the name of the woman ie Deborah Bessa.
On searching more, we found an article on the same incident by G1, a Brazilian news portal on 30 January 2018. The article mentioned that the 19-year-old woman had gone missing on 9 January 2018. Her family found her in Rio Branco on 13 January 2018.
On 26 January 2018, the police stated that it had used the decapitation video which it found on a seized cell phone, to find the people who were responsible for the incident. She was allegedly killed by people from a rival drug gang.
As per G1, Cristiano Bastos, investigating officer said that two people were responsible for the execution and three people filmed the incident. He told G1, “Deborah was a rival faction and there are indications that she has participated in crimes against the faction that she was executed. Even in the situation of filming identical to what happened.”
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