Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
A video, showing a youth brutally slitting the throat of a girl as onlookers yell at him, is doing the rounds on social media platforms. Several social media users have shared the video of the incident claiming that a “Muslim” youth beheaded a “Hindu” girl in Surat after she “refused to become a Muslim.” However, Newschecker has found out that the communal spin given to the incident is untrue as both the accused and victim belonged to the same community.
Several social media users have shared the video of the gruesome incident with a communal claim, urging “Hindus” to “wake up and unite” and “fight for our children.”
Find links to Facebook posts here, here, here and here.
The video is doing rounds on Twitter as well with the claim that a Muslim boy beheaded Hindu girl.
Find links to the tweets here, here, here and here.
Misinformation and fake news peddlers target social media users by exploiting their communal and religious sentiment. In December 2021, we had debunked a similar video from Bihar’s Gopalganj with false ‘love jihad’ claim. You can read our fact check here.
Fact Check/Verification
To verify the veracity of the viral claim that Muslim boy beheaded Hindu girl in Surat, Newschecker conducted a keyword search for “girl beheaded in Surat” on Google and found multiple media reports on this incident.
According to a report by NDTV, dated February 13, 2022, titled ‘Man Slits Woman’s Throat For Saying No To Proposal: Gujarat Police’ the accused, identified as Fenil Goyani, has been arrested for allegedly killing one Grishma Vekariya in Surat. “The accused and victim had studied in school together. His desire for a relationship with the woman was opposed by her and her family members. At around 6pm on Saturday, the woman’s uncle confronted Goyani and asked him to stay away from her,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police BK Vanar.
“The motive behind the murder was the rejection of the proposal. Fenil was presently doing nothing. We recovered two knives from his possession which he had purchased from a mall in Surat city. The accused has a criminal mindset. Grishma’s father Nandlal Vekariya is into the diamond business and he returned to India from Nigeria Tuesday to attend the funeral,” Kamrej police inspector M M Gilatar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
We also came across a report by the Times of India which carried the same viral video. According to the report the video was captured by the victim’s family members.
However, none of the reports mentioned anything about the viral ‘communal’ angle to the incident or that a Muslim boy beheaded Hindu girl.
According to a report by the Ahmedabad Mirror, Grishma and Fenil belonged to the same community.
Newschecker also contacted PSI Kamrej P.M. Parmar who confirmed that that the incident had no communal angle to it. He said, “Both girl and boy belonged to the same community, the Gujarati Patel and there is no communal angle to the incident.”
Conclusion
The communal narrative given to the brutal killing of a girl in Surat is misleading. We found that both the accused and the deceased belonged to the same community.
Result: Misleading Content/Partly False
Sources
Direct Contact With PSI Kamrej P.M. Parmar
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
