On April 30, several fake news peddlers, alleged journalists and media houses claimed five people were arrested by the police in Sikar, Rajasthan, for raping a half-cremated dead body of a woman.
Twitter user Mohammad Sher Ali, who claims to tweet exposing fake news in his bio, wrote, “An incident that can embarrass humanity has come to light from Sikar, Rajasthan, where five monsters took out a dead body from a burning pyre and raped it. Surprisingly, one of these five accused is a government teacher.”
Another Twitter user Mohammed Hussain who tweet about “injustice, politics, inhumanity, social issues and mob-lynching” quoted Lallanpost media and wrote, “An incident that can embarrass humanity has come to light from Sikar, Rajasthan, where five monsters took out a dead body from a burning pyre and raped it. Police said the woman died in an accident on Monday. Her dead body was handed over to the family after postmortem. The family members cremated the body and returned home. In the evening Shankar Lal, Babu Lal, Raju Kumar, Deepak and Hari Singh took out the burning body and raped it. Shankar Lal is a school teacher in the village”
Fake news peddler Ali Sohrab wrote, “What happened was in Rajasthan five Hindus raped a woman after dragging her hal-dead body from the cremation ground. As the rapists are from the Hindu community, therefore, to suppress the news, the Hindu media linked certain graves of Hyderabad and Algeria with Pakistan and rape.
Muslim journalist Meer Faisal also posted the same fake news.
Meer Faisal is incidentally a Muslim journalist who is a columnist at The Wire and believes that all non-Muslims are the same – that is Kafir. He is also the same journalist who had spread fake news about the Ram Navami violence by Islamists against Hindus and claimed that it was the Hindus who had initiated the violence. OpIndia had debunked 15 lies that he had spread after the Ram Navami violence.
Sikar police refuted the claims made by several other media personalities including Ashok Swain. By the time this report was published, his tweet was still there despite the rebuttal by the police. He wrote, “While Indian media spreading fake news about the locked grave in Pakistan to keep rapists away, in Sikar, India, five Hindus have been caught for raping the dead body of a woman by taking it out of a burning pyre.”
🚫उक्त घटना मिथ्या एव भ्रामक है
— Sikar Police (@SikarPolice) May 1, 2023
शव को चिता दाह संस्कार के 3 दिन बाद बाहर से आए व्यक्ति अपने परिचित से मिलने इलाके में आए जिस से ग्रामीणों ने संदिग्ध समझकर मारपीट की गई जिसपर थाना अजीतगढ़ द्वारा मौके पर पहुंच विधिक कार्यवाही की गई दुष्कर्म जैसी घटना नही होना पाई गई ।
Those who deleted the tweets include Meer Faisal, Sadaf Afreen, Md Asif Khan, Lallanpost and others. Twitter user Anshul Saxena published screenshots of the now-deleted tweets.
2) Sadaf Afreen posted fake news. pic.twitter.com/1echXKKg1V
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) April 30, 2023
Netizens demanded action against the fake news peddlers. Twitter user Sunil Khatik wrote, “How hateful! Will Sikar Police take action against those who spread fake news about rape of a dead body? Many people have deleted the tweets.”
कितनी नफरत भरी है !
— Sunil Khatik (@DrSunilKhatik) April 30, 2023
क्या राजस्थान सीकर में जलती चिता से शव निकाल कर दुष्कर्म करने की #FakeNewz फैलाने वालो के विरुद्ध @SikarPolice कार्रवाई करेगी?
कई लोगो ने ट्वीट डिलीट कर दिये है ! pic.twitter.com/C6JtMMYRVy
During our investigation, we found that most of the tweets were based on an Asianet News report (Archive) from April 19 where the media house claimed the incident took place in the Ajitgarh Police Station area. The report mentioned that the woman died in a road accident on April 15. The dead body was handed over to the family on April 16. The family cremated the body on the same day and returned home.
In the evening, someone informed the family that the dead body of the woman has been removed from the burning pyre and some people were raping it. The report further claimed that the family rushed to the cremation ground and beat up whoever they found there. Five people were handed over to the police and they found some material associated with occult practices.
However, Sikar police categorically refuted the claims of raping the dead body. On May 1, tagging Asianet News Sikar Police wrote, “The said incident is false and misleading. Three days after the cremation of the dead body, the villagers thrashed an outsider on suspicion. The man came to meet his acquaintance. Legal action has been taken by the police at Ajitgarh Police Station. No incident like rape could be found.” Asianet has not deleted or modified the report or tweets.
@AsianetNewsHN 🚫उक्त घटना मिथ्या एव भ्रामक है
— Sikar Police (@SikarPolice) May 1, 2023
शव को दाह संस्कार के 3 दिन बाद बाहर से आए व्यक्ति अपने परिचित से मिलने इलाके में आए जिस से ग्रामीणों ने संदिग्ध समझकर मारपीट की गई जिसपर थाना अजीतगढ़ द्वारा मौके पर पहुंच विधिक कार्यवाही की गई दुष्कर्म जैसी घटना नही होना पाई गई । pic.twitter.com/sRjxsMH38j
It is pertinent to note that several individuals who spread thise lie highlighted the ‘Hindu’ names of the alleged perpetrators in an attempt to weaponise this fake news against Hindus.
