Indian accounts share unrelated video falsely linked to hindu student’s death
A photo and video circulating on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) claim that a student named Ovi Das was tied up and thrown alive into a river by Islamist extremists in Bangladesh. However, a fact-check by Dismislab found that the footage is unrelated to the claim. The video is from an incident in 2025 in Fatullah, Narayanganj, showing the recovery of the body of a man named Jony Sarkar.
An India-based X account named Voice of Hindus shared a photo and a video with the caption: “Horrifying Visuals. Islamists mob tied Hindu student Ovi Das and threw him alive into a river. He was a student at Jagannath University. Will anyone help Hindus in Bangladesh?” In the 1-minute and 4-second video, police can be seen as a body is taken out of a sack. Text in the video reads, “Bangladesh without Hindus.” The post has garnered over 52,000 views and has been shared more than 2,200 times. The same claim, along with the video, was shared by several other X accounts (1, 2, 3).
What actually happened to Ovi
While verifying the authenticity of the claim, Dismislab found a news report by Somoy TV. The report, titled “Missing college student Ovi’s body found in river, identified by clothing”, was published on January 18, 2025. According to the report, police recovered the floating body of a young man from a river on the afternoon of January 17. The victim was later identified as Ovi. He was the eldest son of Ramesh Chandra, a resident of Santahar in Adamdighi upazila. The officer-in-charge at Naogaon Sadar police, Niamul Islam, said the exact cause of death would be known after the post-mortem.
It was claimed in the X posts that Ovi was a student of Jagannath University, a public university in Bangladesh. However, Somoy TV reported that Ovii was a fourth-year honors student in the Management Department at Naogaon Government College. The same information can be found in a report published by a local outlet named Uttarbhumi.
Origin of the video
To verify the source of the video attached to the posts, Dismislab conducted a keyword search and found a post, dated August 21, 2025, on the verified Facebook page “CA Press Wing Facts”, run by the Press Wing of the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government. The post said the same video had circulated earlier on Facebook with a different claim. It labeled the claim false and published a fact-check report. The post also included an archive link to the original video and said that the video was from an incident in June 2025. The video showed the recovery of a sack-wrapped body of a young man from a drain in the Fatullah area of Narayanganj.
For further verification, Dismislab analyzed the original video using the archive link. The video exactly matched the one now being shared on X, falsely claiming it shows Ovi. The original video was posted from a personal profile on Facebook on June 17, 2025. The caption read: “Today, the body of a young man was found inside a sack in the South Shiarchar Lalkha area of Fatullah. Please share the video. A sack-wrapped body was recovered from a drain beside the road known as New Road in front of Advance Garments, East Shiarchar Lalkha.
The location, clothing, and actions of the people visible in the 4-minute and 27-second video exactly match the video currently being circulated on X. Descriptions of the incident in Fatullah in multiple media reports (1, 2, 3, 4) also match the scenes shown in the video.
The reports said the name of the deceased in the Fatullah incident was Jony Sarkar and that his father, Karuna Sarkar, killed him by hitting him on the head with a rolling pin while he was asleep, after being abused by Jony. The father later filed a case against himself at the police station. Police investigations later revealed the full details of the incident. This means the body seen being recovered in the video shared on X is not Ovi’s, but Jony Sarkar’s.
It is also worth noting that on January 18, police recovered the hanging body of a Jagannath University student from Bhattikhana in Old Dhaka. Reports identified him as Akash Sarkar.
While examining the accounts that spread the fake video claiming Ovi’s body was recovered, Dismislab found that the accounts are operated from India. The accounts are also connected through Indian Android applications.
In conclusion, the video shared with the claim that Islamist extremists tied Ovi and threw him alive into a river is old and unrelated to the incident. Ovi was also not a student of Jagannath University.
