Old photo of a mob assault in Bengal is falsely shared as humiliation of Hindu women by Muslim TMC leaders - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 10, 2021
A post with an image of three persons lying naked is being widely shared on social media claiming that Muslim TMC Leaders in West Bengal have humiliated Hindu women. The post even claims that Hindu women and daughters were beaten up and stripped naked by the roadside. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of Hindu women being humiliated by Muslim TMC leaders in West Bengal.
Fact: The photo was taken in 2014 when an angry mob in Kaliabazar, West Bengal beat up three men on the suspicion of raping a seven-year-old girl. It has nothing to do with different religious communities. One man in the photo lying naked was Ratan Das, a local tantric and the other two were his friends. There is no mention of TMC leaders in the news articles published about the incident. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the photo, an article was found with the same image. The article published on 24 July 2014 states that Indian rape suspects were beaten by an angry mob after a seven-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree. People in Kaliabazar, West Bengal went around the village to search for a girl who was missing the previous night. The girl was found hanging from a tree. When rumours began that she had been gang-raped, the villagers rounded up Ratan Das, a local tantric, and two of his associates. The mob beat up the men and stripped them naked. Another article about the same incident can be seen here.
The image in the article shows that they were men, contrary to the claim made in the photo (which was blurred), that they were women. There is no mention of TMC Muslim leaders or Hindu women being beaten up. In fact, it has nothing to do with religious communities.
To sum it up, an old photo of a mob assault in Bengal is falsely shared as the humiliation of Hindu women by Muslim TMC leaders.