A screenshot of a newspaper clipping is being shared on social media claiming it to be a recent news article reporting the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl on the pretext of Kanya Puja at a temple. This post claims that on the pretext of performing Kanya Puja, a priest raped a 5-year-old girl and crushed her to death with a stone at a temple. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A recent news clipping reporting the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl at a temple on the pretext of Kanya Puja.
Fact: The newspaper clipping shared in the post is at least three years old. The incident took place in 2019 in Sector 14 of Panchkula city in Haryana. On the pretext of performing Kanya Puja, the accused Lakhpat took the 5-year-old girl to a secluded place, molested her and threw the dead body in a forest after crushing her head with a big stone. The accused was a labourer and the incident did not take place inside a temple. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When we searched to find the details of the news clipping using keywords on the internet, we found the same screenshot in a Facebook post made by a user on 14 May 2019. The clearer version of this news clipping shows an article published by the ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ news website.
When we searched for further details of this news report using keywords on the internet, we found a 3-year-old article published by ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ related about the same incident. According to the article, a 5-year-old girl was raped and crushed to death by a 15-year-old youth named Lakhpat at the Sector 14 of Panchkula city in Haryana. On the pretext of performing Kanya Puja, the accused Lakhpat reportedly had taken the 5-year-old girl to a secluded place, molested her and threw the dead body in a forest after crushing her head with a big stone. The incident took place on 13 May 2019 and the accused Lakhpat was arrested immediately on the next day.
Reporting this horrific incident, several news websites published articles in 2019. They can be seen here and here. The crime did not take place in a temple and the accused Lakhpat worked as a labourer, not as a priest. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the news clipping shared in the post is three years old and the incident did not take place it a temple.
To sum it up, a 3-year-old news clipping on rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl on the pretext of Kanya Puja is shared as recent incident.
