Old video of a man who attacked his girlfriend with a knife in Ranchi is now shared with a false love jihad narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 6, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming it is the visuals of a Muslim man who cut the throat of his Hindu girlfriend. The video shows a group of people thrashing a man in public. The video was sent to our WhatsApp Tipline (+91 92470 52470) number to check the authenticity of this claim. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a group of people thrashing a Muslim man for slitting the throat of his Hindu girlfriend.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows an old incident that took place in Pithoria village in the Ranchi district of Jharkhand in 2019. The accused Arvind Kumar was thrashed by locals after he attacked his girlfriend with a knife by accusing her of having an illicit relationship with another man. Both the accused and the victim girl belong to the same community. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a screengrab of the video was found in an article published by ‘ETV Bharat’ on 16 September 2019. Sharing the picture, this news story reported that Arvind, a resident of Latehar, was thrashed by a group of locals after he was caught attacking his girlfriend with a knife near the Patratu Valley in Ranchi.
Reporting the details of the incident, several other news agencies have also published articles in September 2019. They can be seen here and here. As per the reports, on 15 September 2019, both Arvind and his girlfriend visited Patratru Valley in Ranchi. While returning from Patratru Valley on a bike, Arvind reportedly had a heated argument with his girlfriend by accusing her of having an illicit affair with another man. Following the heated argument, Arvind allegedly attacked the victim with a knife. Hearing the screams of the victim, the locals nearby reached the spot, thrashed Arvind Kumar fiercely, and handed over him to the Pithoria police.
Speaking about the incident to The Quint fact-check team, the SSP of Ranchi (Rural) told that the case is not related to love jihad. As per the press release provided by SSP Ranchi to Quint, Arvind allegedly molested the victim, and when the victim resisted, Arvind reportedly attacked her and sliced her face and neck with a knife. According to the statement, both the accused and the victim belong to the same district and from the same community.
To sum it up, an old video of people thrashing a man for attacking his girlfriend with a knife is now shared with a love jihad narrative.