A news clip about a Dalit woman beheading Muslim men in Varanasi is fabricated - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 20, 2023
A newspaper clip, the Hindi title of which loosely translates to ‘Dalit Hindu girl absconding after slitting the throat of 6 Muslim youths for threatening rape and conversion’ is being widely circulated. The viral clip further reports that the heads of these six men have been recovered from Babatpur Kali temple. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Dalit Hindu woman has slit throats of 6 Muslim youth for threatening rape and conversion in Babatpur, Varanasi.
Fact: Varanasi police confirmed that no such incident took place and dismissed the news as fake. UP Tak also clarified that viral clip is wrongly attributed to them, and they did not publish any such article. The viral is fabricated and created digitally. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Internet search with relevant keywords did not yield any news reports regarding the alleged incident. Additionally, we came across a tweet by the Varanasi police’s Gomti zone Deputy Commissioner of Police’s account, which dismissed the news as false.
आवश्यक सूचना…
कतिपय ट्वीटर हैंडलों द्वारा एक फेक न्यूज को पोस्ट कर वायरल किया जा रहा है, जो पूर्णतया असत्य है। वाराणसी गोमती ज़ोन पुलिस इस असत्य एवं भ्रामक खबर का खंडन करती है।#UPPolice #PoliceCommissionerateVaranasi #Gomti_Zone pic.twitter.com/eL37ECjQ9g
Further, the tweet clarifies that no such incident took place in the jurisdiction of Babatpur police station. The news clip shared by the police carries the logo of ‘UP Tak’, however, we could not find any such article published by UP Tak on their website or shared on social media platforms.
Further search led us to a tweet by UP Tak, distancing itself from the news clip. The tweet rated the news clip as fictitious and misleading.
सोशल मीडिया पर यूपी Tak के नाम (Logo) के साथ फैलाई जा रही ये काल्पनिक ख़बर पूर्णतया असत्य एवं भ्रामक है। कृपया ऐसी भ्रामक ख़बरों पर ध्यान न दें। वारणसी कमिश्नरेट ने भी इस ख़बर का खंडन किया है। पुलिस ऐसे पोस्ट को शेयर करने वालों पर वैधानिक कार्यवाही करेगी।#UPTak #FakeNews… pic.twitter.com/4CHtr2COX5
Additionally, the news stories and images featured in the viral clip are old. The news about the MP budget is old news published by a news portal ‘Web Dunia’, back in March 2022. The image of police personnel is a file photo published by Indian Express in their news articles. These indicate that the viral clip is fabricated and digitally created.
To sum it up, a news clip about a Dalit woman beheading Muslim men in Varanasi is fabricated.