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| - Fact Check: Viral post mixes two separate cases from 2018 to fuel communal narrative in Bengal
India Today found that the image is related to a six-year-old incident from Bhopal.
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India Today Fact Check
The image is related to a 2018 Bhopal incident where a Hindu man called Rohit Singh held a Hindu woman hostage for several hours.
A post going viral on social media right now alleges that a Muslim man called Sultan Shaikh killed his Hindu fiancee Shubhalagna and injured her parents in West Bengal’s Howrah after his “false Hindu identity was discovered. The post featured a photo of a man and a woman, with the latter’s face blurred. The photo and the news were credited to ABP News. The archive of such a post can be seen here.
India Today found that the photo shows a Hindu man called Rohit Singh who held a Hindu woman hostage for several in 2018 in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal. However, the same year in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, a man called Sheikh Sultan had killed a woman named Shubhalagna.
OUR PROBE
Many people responded to the viral posts pointing out that the image was related to a 2018 incident from Bhopal. Reverse-searching the photo led us to a July 14, 2018 report by the Navbharat Times. According to it, in Bhopal’s Misrod area, a man called Rohit forcefully entered the apartment of a woman called Vibha Srivastav and held her hostage for hours. The ordeal went on for about 12 hours, after which Rohit was arrested.
According to The Times of India, the accused, Rohit Singh aka Regal, allegedly stabbed the woman and locked himself in her bedroom. Reportedly, he threatened her to marry him. The hostage was later rescued and admitted to a hospital.
Many news outlets had reported this incident in 2018 and all named the accused as Rohit Singh. As per a report by Patrika, the woman who was held hostage later demanded strict punishment for Rohit claiming that he had motives to kill her and her family.
We contacted Rahul Kumar Lodha, currently serving as the superintendent of police in Ratlam, who was posted in Bhopal in 2018 and was present at the spot when this incident happened. He told India Today Fact Check that both the accused and the victim in this case were Hindus. He said, “I spoke to the accused Rohit for around four hours to convince him to open the door. Rohit, a resident of Uttar Pradesh had befriended that girl (victim) in Mumbai. There was some dispute between them, following which she came back to Misrod and the said incident happened.”
He added, “The girl had visited me with her mother a few days after this incident,” which disproves the claim of the woman being murdered.
THE SHEIKH SULTAN AND SHUBHALAGNA STORY
Using a keyword search, we found a July 2018 report by Business Standard that said a 35-year-old woman named Shubhalagna was shot dead by her “jilted lover” Sheikh Sultan, who also beat up her parents in West Bengal’s Hooghly district.
We also shared the viral post with Partha Sikdar, the additional commissioner of police at the Uttar Para Police Station, who told India Today, “This incident happened in July 2018. Sultan was convicted and was sent to lifetime imprisonment. I don't have any idea about the people in the viral post.”
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