There is no communal angle in the incident of the rape and murder of a minor girl in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon
A video (here, here, and here) of a few injured policemen is being widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that Muslims attacked the police who went to arrest Hafiz Beg, who allegedly raped and killed a 6-year-old girl in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: In Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, Muslims attacked the police who went to arrest Hafiz Beg, who had raped and killed a 6-year-old Hindu girl.
Fact: According to various news reports and police, there is no communal angle in the incident of the rape and murder of a minor girl in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon. The accused in this incident is identified as Subhash Imaji Bhil, and both the accused and the victim belong to the same caste and community. According to reports, a six-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Chinchkheda village in Jalgaon district on 11 June 2024. The accused had been absconding for days after committing the heinous crime. Later, the police arrested Subhash Imaji Bhil and brought him to Jamner police station on 20 June 2024. Upon learning about the arrest, villagers surrounded the police station and demanded that the accused be handed over to them. Subsequently, they attacked the police station, injuring the policemen on duty. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the veracity of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search. This search led us to several news reports related to the incident in Jalgaon, Maharashtra. According to a report by ‘The Asian Age’, at least 14 policemen were injured while trying to save a rape accused from a mob lynching. The incident took place in a tribal village in the Jalgaon district on the night of 20 June 2024, after the police arrested a man accused of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl. The accused had been absconding for days after committing the heinous crime. When the villagers learned about the arrest, they surrounded the police station and demanded that the accused be handed over to them. Subsequently, they attacked the police station, injuring the policemen on duty.
The report further stated that a six-year-old girl from the Bhil community, a Scheduled Tribe (ST), was raped and murdered in Chinchkheda village in the Jalgaon district on 11 June 2024. The accused, identified as Subhash Bhil (35), was the neighbour of the victim and had been absconding since the crime. He was later arrested in Bhusawal, about 29 km from Jamner. The police registered an FIR against Bhil under sections 376 and 302 of the IPC, as well as relevant sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. The police brought Bhil to the Jamner police station in handcuffs, where a mob of around 300 people surrounded the station, demanding that the accused be handed over to them. Violence broke out, resulting in several police officers being injured. Additional news reports regarding this incident can be seen here, here, and here.
We further accessed the FIR filed in this rape and murder case on the Maharashtra Police website. According to the FIR, the accused in this incident is Subhash Imaji Bhil, and the incident took place in Chinchkheda village in the Jalgaon district on 11 June 2024. In discussions with several media agencies (here, here), Jalgaon police confirmed that there is no communal angle involved in this incident. The police further stated that both the accused and the victim belong to the same caste and community.
To sum it up, there is no communal angle in the incident of the rape and murder of a minor girl in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon.