Indian video falsely circulated to claim Bangladesh as unsafe
A video was recently circulated on the social media platform Facebook with the claim that rape has not stopped in Bangladesh and that Bangladesh is unsafe for daughters. However, a fact-check by Dismislab reveals that the incident is not from Bangladesh, but from West Bengal, India. According to information obtained from media reports, on the morning of July 5, the body of a teenage girl was recovered in the Suryapur Haat area of South 24 Parganas in Kolkata. The circulated video is of the scene of the body being recovered.
On July 6, the video was posted from a personal Facebook profile with a caption stating, “Which way is Bangladesh heading?? Rape has not stopped; today Bangladesh is extremely unsafe for daughters, mi*nor ra*ped and mur*dered in Baruipur.” In the 24-second video, several individuals are seen carrying a teenage girl in their arms beside a pond.
Up until the publication of this report, this video has been viewed more than 6,000 times and shared 104 times. The video was posted with the same claim from multiple personal Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3).
To verify the authenticity, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using multiple keyframes from the video. Upon verification, a video published on July 5 on a Facebook page named “DNA Bangla 24x”’ was found. The page identifies itself as a news outlet. A portion of the post’s caption read, “Battlefield Baruipur | Baruipur in turmoil over the recovery of the bo**dy of a 12-year-old minor | Huge police force deployed. A 12-year-old minor who went out of the house to buy food never returned. Her bo**dy was recovered from a pond in the Suryapur Haat area of Baruipur, South 24 Parganas.” Though the video is blurred, there are similarities between the scene in this video and the circulated video. In both cases, the rescuer’s clothes are similar.
For further verification, Dismislab searched various relevant keywords from the report. Upon verification, reports on the incident were published in multiple India-based media outlets (1, 2, 3, 4). A report published by Ei Samay on July 5 stated, “Allegation of rape and murder of a 12-year-old minor in the Baruipur area of South 24 Parganas. The body was recovered from a pond some distance away from the house. Tension spread in the area centering around this incident on Sunday morning. The police have started an investigation into the incident. The police have detained one accused.”
That is to say, the video circulated describing Bangladesh as unsafe is an incident of the murder of a teenage girl in West Bengal, India.
