Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
After the heinous murder of a 26-year-old woman, Shraddha Walkar, by her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala, in Delhi, several users took to online to rake up the “love jihad’ conspiracy once again.
One video, in particular, has gone viral, showing a man assaulting a woman in front of a small child. Text in the video, identifies the man as Mohammad Mushtaq GK, who works in an IT company in Bangalore. Users posting the video are sharing it as another instance of a woman falling victim to ‘love jihad’. The video was shared on Facebook too.
Fact Check
Taking a cue from the text in the video, Newschecker ran a keyword search on Google, which led us to a report by Ground Report, dated November 6, which revealed that the video was shot in 2015 and was initially shared by an Instagram user named Sohail Rasool, after which it went viral. The report identified the people seen in the video as one Ayesha Banu and her husband Mohammad Mushtaq GK. Mushtaq and Banu got married on March 30, 2009, in Davangere, Karnataka, following which the couple had a child in 2013. They soon decided to separate owing to differences and Mushtaq remarried, the report added.
Mushtaq appealed for the custody of his eight-year-old child after the divorce, which was rejected by the court, and granted the child’s custody to Banu.
Giving Ayesha Banu the custody of the child, the Karnataka high court, on December 22, 2021 said, “A Muslim wife can retain sole custody of her minor child when she can stay away from her marital home on the grounds of her husband’s second marriage.” The copy of the judgement can be seen on the official website of Indian High Court. The judgement also clearly states that both the parties (Ayesha and Mushtaq) are Sunni Muslims.
Newschecker further reached out to Naeem Pasha S, the lawyer of Ayesha Banu, who confirmed that both Ayesh and her husband belonged to the same community, and that the claims doing the rounds on social media were not true.
Conclusion
An old video showing an instance of domestic abuse by a Bengaluru techie is going viral claiming to show an incident of ‘love jihad’. Both the man and the woman seen in the video were found to be from the same community.
Rating: Missing Context
(This article was originally published in Newschecker Hindi by Arjun Deodia)
Our Sources
Article of Ground Report.com, published on November 6, 2022
Karnataka High Court Judgement
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
