Indian video falsely shared to claim body recovered in Munshiganj
Some links have been provided in this report to accurately present the claim and the evidence from the fact-check. The images and videos available through those links may contain sensitive content.
A video of a girl’s body has recently been shared on Facebook with the claim that the body of the daughter of a former UP chairman was recovered in Munshiganj, Bangladesh. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the incident took place in West Bengal, India. According to reports from Indian media, the video shows the recovery of a body from a jute field in Cooch Behar district on June 3.
The video was posted from a Facebook profile on August 11. The 15-second video shows the body of a girl lying on the ground. Many people have gathered around and are watching the scene. A song has been added in the background. The poster wrote in the video description, “Former UP chairman’s daughter’s body recovered two days after going missing in Gajaria, Munshiganj!!”
The video was posted with the same claim from several Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
During the investigation, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using several keyframes from the video. It found a video was posted on June 6 this year from an Instagram account named “newsxnagaland”. According to the video description, the body of a minor girl was recovered from a jute field in Dinhata, Cooch Behar, on Wednesday evening, June 3. Family members and local residents alleged that the child had faced physical abuse before her death. The body with its face covered in the 9-second video closely matches the body shown in the circulated video.
Further verification through searches using relevant keywords found detailed reports (1, 2, 3) published by several India-based media outlets about the incident.
According to a report by “Bhaskar English”, a minor girl was murdered in the Dinhata area of Cooch Behar district. On June 3, the body was recovered from a jute field in the Bamanhat-1 gram panchayat area, with a cloth wrapped around her neck. Police said the girl’s family alleged that she had faced physical abuse before her murder. A senior Cooch Behar district police official said, “The body has been sent for post-mortem. A murder case has been filed and an investigation has begun.”
Therefore, misinformation is being spread by presenting a video from India as an incident from Munshiganj, Bangladesh.
Previously, Dismislab published fact-check reports on several incidents from India that circulated with false claims.
