Authors
Sabloo Thomas has worked as a special correspondent with the Deccan Chronicle from 2011 to December 2019. Post-Deccan Chronicle, he freelanced for various websites and worked in the capacity of a translator as well (English to Malayalam and Malayalam to English). He’s also worked with the New Indian Express as a reporter, senior reporter, and principal correspondent. He joined Express in 2001.
Pankaj Menon
Claim
RSS supporter Hindu woman shot dead by Muslims in Kerala.
Fact
Street play performed in Kerala based on the death of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh.
A video is being circulated on social media allegedly showing a woman activist of the RSS being shot dead by Muslims in Kerala. In the 1:37-minute video, two men on bikes are seen stopping a car on the road and pull the female driver out of the vehicle, and shoots her down when she tries to escape.
A Twitter user, @Vijay754510, was among the many who shared the video on social media, whose post has 893 retweets and 162 quote retweets. An archived version of the tweet can be found here.
Many social media users also shared the post on Facebook, which can be found here, here, and here.
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Fact Check/Verification
We first began by converting the video into several keyframes with the help of Invid tool, following which we performed reverse image searches on the keyframes. One of the results took us to a post by the official Facebook page of DYFI Kalikavu, posted on September 8, 2017 with a Malayalam caption, the translation of which reads, “This is DYFI activists of Kalikavu. A groundbreaking event against the RSS. A public trial of the RSS through a street play for killing Gauri Lankesh.”
The video was picked up by the Hindi news channel Zee News and presented with the title ‘Kerala’s leftist Muslims killing a woman with RSS inclination in the middle of the road’. Though the channel later removed the report, many including the then Palakkad MP MB Rajesh who is now the local self government minister slammed the news organisation.
“A propaganda was unleashed by the Zee News using a street drama staged by DYFI against the killing of Gauri Lankesh. Left-wing Muslims in Kerala kill RSS sympathizer Hindu woman in the middle of the road, said the propaganda. Is this how media work? When caught red-handed, the news(?) was deleted, without even an apology (sic),” Rajesh’s post read.
A new report by News 18 on September 13, 2017 clarified that the video clip was part of a street play depicting the enactment of the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru on 05 September 2017, by two unknown assailants.
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Conclusion
The viral video claimed to be of an RSS woman activist being killed by Muslims was actually a clipping of a street play performed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India in Kalikavu in Malappuram based on the murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh.
Result: False
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Sources
News report by News 18 on September 13, 2017
Facebook Post by DYFI Kalikavu on September 8, 2017
Facebook post by MB Rajesh on September 12,2017
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Authors
Sabloo Thomas has worked as a special correspondent with the Deccan Chronicle from 2011 to December 2019. Post-Deccan Chronicle, he freelanced for various websites and worked in the capacity of a translator as well (English to Malayalam and Malayalam to English). He’s also worked with the New Indian Express as a reporter, senior reporter, and principal correspondent. He joined Express in 2001.
