Old Incident of Dalit Woman Gang-Raped in Alwar Viral With Misleading Context

We found that the gang rape case of Alwar dates back to 2019 and is being shared as recent.

(Trigger Warning: Mention of rape, sexual assault)

Amid people expressing anger on Manipur viral video case, an image is going viral with a claim that a woman was gang-raped in front of her husband in Rajasthan.

What are users saying?: Those sharing the claim have insinuated the incident happened recently in the state, however it did not spark any outrage among the "agenda peddlers."

This post, in particular, has generated more than a million views on the social media platform.

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

Are these claims true?: While the incident happened in Rajasthan's Alwar, it dates back to 2019.

• A Dalit woman was assaulted by five men in front of her husband in Thanagazi on 26 April 2019.

• The heinous act was filmed and circulated on social media platforms.

• According to reports published in 2020, while four people were sentenced to life imprisonment, one was convicted for circulating the video.

What led us to the truth?: We performed a keyword search and came across a report published on News18, which carried a similar visual.

• The report mentioned that the victim was forcibly taken to a secluded place and was gangraped in front of her husband on 26 April 2019.

• The accused filmed the entire incident. They asked for Rs 10,000 from the victim and threatened to make the video viral.

• The victim filed an First Information Report (FIR) on 2 May 2019.

• After the FIR was filed, the video was made viral on social media platforms. When the Station House Officer (SHO) Sardar Singh was informed about it, he allegedly said that they will add one more section.

• The police later arrested five people, including the one who filmed the entire incident. However, the main accused Chhote Lal remained at large.

Other reports: The Quint published a report that said the main accused in the Alwar gangrape was arrested and was identified as Chhote Lal. According to Lal's neighbours, he is like a don of the village.

• Lal had previous criminal cases registered against him, including charges of rioting, possessing deadly weapons, and looting.

• The report identified all the other accused in the case as Hansraj Gurjar, Indraj Gurjar, Ashok Gurjar, Mahesh Gurjar, and Mukesh Gurjar.

NHRC notice to Rajasthan government: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice on 8 May 2019 and took a suo moto cognizance of the incident. It said that if the media reports are true, then the incident "amount to the gross violation of the human rights of the victim woman and her husband."

Charges against SHO: The Quint reported that a case was being filed against SHO Thanagazi police station Sardar Singh for negligence of duty in connection with the Alwar gang rape case.

• The SHO was charged under different sections of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

• While Deputy Inspector Ruparnarayan and a few constables were transferred outside Jaipur, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jagmohan Sharma was asked to move out of the district.

Punishment to the accused: According to Hindustan Times, a special court gave life imprisonment to four of the five accused for raping the Dalit woman in Rajasthan. The man who circulated the video of the heinous act on social media was convicted for five years.

Conclusion: The incident of several men gangraping a woman in front of her husband in Rajasthan is from 2019 and is being shared with a misleading context on the internet.

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