Unrelated Images Viral on Internet With False ‘Love Jihad’ Spin

The woman seen in first two photographs is alive and has nothing to do with the woman in the third photograph.

Two unrelated images of a couple are being shared along with a dead body surrounded by cops to claim that it was a case of “love jihad” in which the woman – a Hindu – was murdered by a Muslim man after their wedding.

However, we found that while the couple seen in the first two photographs did have an interfaith marriage, both of them are alive and have nothing to do with the woman in the third photograph whose corpse was found in a suitcase.

THE CLAIM

The aforementioned images are being massively circulated on Twitter and Facebook with the text: “Love Jihaad always Ends at the deàth of Hindu Girl.” In addition to this #MuslimsAreJihadi is also being used in the caption.

On 27 August, a Twitter account which goes by the name “BJP Balochistan” shared these images with the fake claim and the tweet had garnered above 8,000 likes and 4,000 retweets at the time of filing this report.

WHAT WE FOUND

A Google reverse search using image 1 and image 2 directed us to a Facebook post which identified the couple as Lavi Joshi and Mohd Adil Pasha from Gorakhpur Chowk area in Dehradun.

Next, we reached out the Patel Nagar Police which has Gorakhpur Chowk under its jurisdiction. The police officials while speaking to us confirmed that both of these individuals are from Dehradun and very much alive. “These two individuals had an interfaith marriage and they are from Dehradun,” an official told us.

With the help of Dehradun Police, we reached out to Surabhi Chauhan Pasha (identified as Lavi in the Facebook post), the woman who can be seen in the photographs which are being circulated. She told us that several rumours started surfacing on social media only a day after she got married to Mohd Adil Pasha.

“A day after our wedding, our photographs surfaced on social media with many false claims including one which said that I have been murdered by my husband. These rumours are being circulated by members of the Bajrang Dal. We have reached out to police for help.”

Surabhi Chauhan Pasha

The police also mentioned that no recent case of a corpse being recovered from a suitcase has come to light in that area.

Taking a cue from the inputs received from Dehradun Police we carried out a Google reverse search using the third image and found a news report by The Times Of India dated 27 July, which carried details of the incident.

The report mentioned that the body of an unidentified woman stuffed inside a bag was recovered from Ghaziabad.

We reached out to Gyanendra Kumar Singh, Ghaziabad’s Additional Superintendent of Police, who told us that the image is indeed of the body recovered from inside the bag. He also mentioned that the investigation is still on and the police is trying to establish the identity of the woman. 

Further, Singh told us that the woman in image 1 and image 2 is not the same as the one who was found dead in Ghaziabad.

Evidently, unrelated images are being shared on social media with a “Love Jihad” spin.

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