Video of man accused of murdering wife in Bihar shared with false communal spin

By: Chandan Borgohain
May 5 2023

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Context

A video of a man saying he murdered his wife is making rounds on social media, with communal overtones claiming that a Muslim man killed his wife because she was a Hindu. A Twitter user who shared the video wrote, "How proudly he is saying that he K!lled his wife just because she was Hindu." The tweet, posted on May 2, has been widely circulated and has gained over 98k views and over 2.7k retweets. The video also carried embedded text claiming that the man killed his wife because she was Hindu and that he made her fall in love with him and then killed her within one year of marriage, insinuating it was a case of love jihad.

In Fact

In the video, we noticed the logo of Insaaf 24 written in Hindi on reporter's mic. Insaaf 24 is a local news outlet based in Bihar. We found the original video uploaded on its YouTube channel on April 28, 2023. While the man admits that he killed his wife, it contains no statement by the accused that reveals his wife's religion. When we contacted Insaaf 24 for verification, they sdenied any communal angle to the incident and clarified that the accused's wife belonged to the same religious community. The incident took place at Bangra in Bihar's Samastipur district.

In a recent report published on May 4, the news outlet talked to the family members of the victim, who confirmed the same. According to the report, which shows a photo of the couple, the victim's name is Yasmeen, and she married the accused, Mohammad Mehbub Alam, eight months ago.

Logically Facts reached out to Irfaan Ahmad, a Bangra-based stringer who shared the victim's Aadhaar card and the Nikahnama (Islamic marriage certificate), confirming that both the accused and victim belong to the same religious community.

The police denied any communal angle to the alleged murder. "Based on the complaint by the victim's family, a case was registered. We are still investigating the matter. However, the claims that she was from a different religious background are untrue," Bangra Police Station SHO Abhinav Kumar told Logically Facts.

While the deceased's family members alleged that she was killed for "dowry," the local police said the case is still under investigation, and are waiting for the results of the postmortem report.

The Verdict

An incident of alleged murder has been falsely shared to fuel the communal narrative of "love jihad." Statements from the family members of the victim, local police, and local journalists confirm that the victim belong to the same religious community. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.