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| - A video of a woman being made to do sit-ups while holding her ears is viral on social media with the claim that she is a Bangladeshi Hindu woman named Jyotika Basu Chatterjee, who used to run a humanitarian organisation that provided education and health care.
Bangladesh has been in a state of crisis since August 5 when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted following a month-long nationwide student protest that resulted in the deaths of hundreds. Since then, there have been numerous reports of attacks on minority Hindus in various parts of the country. This particular video has gone viral in this context.
On August 8, an interim government was formed in Bangladesh with 84-year-old Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus sworn in as its chief advisor. The newly formed government assured on August 11 that they were working to stop incidents of attacks on minorities
X user Mr. Nationalist (@MrNationalistJJ) shared the above-mentioned video on August 9 with the following caption: “#AHorrorStory
This is Jyotika Basu-Chatterjee from Bangladesh. A woman who ran a humanitarian organization. She worked tirelessly on education and health for Muslims with Hindu funds. She helped all the women nearby, be it small or big; whenever anyone needed help….” The tweet has received over 20 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 10,000 times. (Archive)
#AHorrorStory
This is Jyotika Basu-Chatterjee from Bangladesh. A woman who ran a humanitarian organization. She worked tirelessly on education and health for Muslims with Hindu funds. She helped all the women nearby, be it small or big; whenever anyone needed help….
1/3 pic.twitter.com/Bz3r73tAcL
— Mr. Nationalist (@MrNationalistJJ) August 9, 2024
The video was also tweeted by Right-wing influencer Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala), who shares communal propaganda on a regular basis. In his tweet, he called it a “heart wrenching story”. He also claimed that the lady in the clip, Jyotika Basu Chatterjee, was stripped naked, raped and burnt alive. (Archive)
Heart wrenching story 💔
She is Jyotika Basu Chatterjee from #Bangladesh. She ran a humanitarian organization and worked tirelessly on education & health for Musl!ms with funds from Hindus. She helped all the women nearby, in all way possible ; whenever anyone needed help they… pic.twitter.com/Hda5VofQsf
— Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala) August 9, 2024
Premium subscribed X user Faraz Pervaiz (@FarazPervaiz3) also shared that viral video on August 9 with the same claim as above. The tweet has received over 43,000 views and has been retweeted 1,000 times. (Archive)
A #Hindu women Jyotika Basu Chatterjee from #Bangladesh.
A woman who ran a humanitarian organization. She worked tirelessly on education and health for Muslims with Hindu funds.#BangladeshiHindus #AllEyesonBangladesh #AllEyesonBangladeshHindus pic.twitter.com/v5gtPZqwsK
— Faraz Pervaiz (@FarazPervaiz3) August 9, 2024
Several other users on X have shared the viral video with the same claim. Below are a few instances.
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Fact Check
We noticed that Bangladeshi fact-checker Shohanur Rahman (@Sohan_RSB) had quote-tweeted @MrNationalistJJ’s tweet and wrote that the name of the woman in the video was Sagarika Akhter who was a Chhatra League leader from Eden Mohila College. Rahman mentioned that the video was from July 17. He also attached a screenshot of a Facebook post from July 17 that had posted the now-viral video.
Founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1948, Chhatra League or the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) is the student wing of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League, which was in power till her ouster on August 5.
She is Sagarika Akhter, a Muslim and a female Chhatra League leader from Eden Women’s College. This video and incident is from July 17.
She is not Jyotika Basu, as mentioned in your fabricated story.
She was punished for standing against students and torturing them using… https://t.co/s6WJI3ll1x pic.twitter.com/k3ErhAC4hM
— Shohanur Rahman (@Sohan_RSB) August 9, 2024
Taking a cue from the above, we ran a relevant keyword search in Bengali on Facebook and came across several posts from July 17 that had carried the viral video. In many of these posts, the woman was identified as a Chhatra League leader from Eden Mohila (Women’s) College. Below are a few instances:
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As per a July 17 report by Bangla Tribune, when students from Eden College started joining the anti-government protests, Chhatra League leaders scolded them in the college and also allegedly physically assaulted them. This angered the students who then started targeting Chhatra League leaders and throwing them out of the college premises. The report also mentioned that similar incidents had also taken place in other education institutions where students had forced BCL leaders out of the college halls.
We also did a Google search with the name Jyotika Basu Chatterjee in English and Bengali to check if there was any report on an assault on anyone by that name. We did not find any.
Therefore, from the above findings, it is clear that neither is the woman in the viral video a Hindu nor is the incident related to alleged attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.
Recently, Alt News debunked a similar false claim where a video of BCL leaders being heckled at the Begum Badrunnessa Women’s College in Dhaka was peddled as Hindu women being attacked.
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