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| - Several social media users have shared the ‘news’ that a girl named Ankita Bauri, a student of Burdwan University in West Bengal, was raped and murdered while she was on her way back home from a protest on the intervening night of August 14 and 15 against the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
X user (@ridhima_z) made the same claim in a tweet on August 16 and also wrote that the face of the victim was smashed with a stone to make her unrecognizable. (Archive)
Another user, Ayan (@syedayan24), highlighted how unfortunate it was that the alleged victim, Ankita Bauri, had to lose her life while returning home after demanding justice for the brutal rape and murder in Kolkata. (Archive)
Several other users on X also shared the viral claim.
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The claim was also viral on Facebook.
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Fact Check
We ran a relevant keyword search and found an article in The Statesman which reported the murder of a 25-year-old tribal woman named Priyanka Hansda, a postgraduate student of Philosophy in Burdwan University, in the Nandur village in Burdwan. The report states that she was found with her throat slit in a farmland, around 50 metres away from her house, on the intervening night of August 14 and 15.
The article also states that it was initially suspected that the woman had been raped and murdered, when the news broke out initially on the morning of Independence Day. The Statesman report, however, quotes the SP of East Burdwan, Amandeep Singh, as clarifying that no evidence of sexual assault was found in the autopsy.
We found another report by The Telegraph, which states that “East Burdwan police held a news conference on Friday to clarify that the 22-year-old tribal woman, whose body was found on Thursday with her throat slit, had not been raped.”
However, we were unable to find any reports on a student named Ankita Bauri being raped and murdered.
Besides, the official X handle of Purba Bardhaman (East Burdwan) Police responded to the viral claim, calling it a ‘rumour.’ They clarified that no such incident of a girl named Ankita Bauri being raped and murdered had happened in Burdwan, and warned social media users against spreading rumours.
Some people are spreading rumours that a girl named Ankita Bauri has been raped and murdered on 14th August when she was returning home after taking part in a march connected with RG Kar incident.
…(1/2)
— Purba Bardhaman Police (@BurdwanPolice) August 17, 2024
We also found a post on the East Burdwan District Police’s official Facebook profile, which sheds light on the rumours surrounding the alleged rape and murder of Ankita Bauri. The post, which is in the Bengali, says, “Some people are spreading rumours that a girl named Ankita Bauri has been raped and murdered on 14th August when she was returning home after taking part in a march connected with RG Kar incident. The fact is that no such incident of rape and murder of girl named Ankita Bauri has happened in Burdwan. Strong action is being taken against people for spreading such rumours. Purba Burdwan police is committed to the safety and security of women.”
কিছু অসাধু ব্যক্তি সামাজিক মাধ্যমে গুজব ছড়াচ্ছে যে অঙ্কিতা বাউরি নামে একটি মেয়ে 14ই আগস্ট যখন আরজি কর ঘটনার সাথে…
Posted by Purba Bardhaman District Police on Friday 16 August 2024
To sum up, the viral social media claim alleging that Ankita Bauri, a student returning from a site of protest on the night of August 15, was brutally raped and murdered, is fabricated. The body of a tribal girl named Priyanka Hansda was found in a farmland in Nandur, Burdwan, on the morning of August 15. Police confirmed she had not been raped. However, no incident involving a victim named Ankita Bauri has come to the fore, cops have confirmed.
Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.
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