Indian incident falsely circulated as a rape and murder case in Bangladesh
Recently, an image of a deceased woman was circulated on Facebook and other social media platforms. It is being claimed that the woman is Bangladeshi and was raped and murdered. However, verification reveals that this claim is false. The actual incident took place in the Indian state of Punjab.
Several Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3), pages (1, 2), and groups have recently posted the image of the deceased woman. These posts claim that the incident is a recent brutal murder in Bangladesh. A Facebook page named “Muktibarta” shared three images of the woman, stating: “Adiba has been found, but as a corpse. Her body was discovered buried in the mud a day after she went missing. She was a resident of Matlab Upazila in Chandpur District.” The post included hashtags such as #BangladeshCrisis, #ComeBackSheikhHasina, and #StepDownYounus. The same image has also been posted from several other profiles (1, 2) with different captions. One Facebook user, Kazi Rakib, commented on his post on January 23, claiming: “The incident took place this morning in Rangpur. She went to meet her loved one, but he, along with several others, raped and killed her.”
A reverse image search of the photos circulating on social media led Dismislab to a recent fact-check report by the Indian fact-checking organization Factly. The report noted that the same images were used to spread misinformation in India as well. On the social media platform X, multiple users claimed that the incident took place in Rajasthan. Additionally, it was alleged that a Muslim man named Abid murdered his wife, Neelam, placed her body in a suitcase, and dumped it in a canal.
Verification reveals that the actual incident occurred in Chandigarh, Punjab, India. The murder took place on January 23 and involved a 22-year-old trainee flight attendant named Nisha Soni. She was a resident of Seru village in Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh. According to the police, Nisha had a friendship with a 33-year-old police officer named Yuvraj Singh. Her body was later recovered near the Pasiana Bridge on the Bhakra Canal in Patiala. Yuvraj Singh has been charged with the murder.
Factly verified reports from multiple Indian media outlets, including The Indian Express, Dainik Bhaskar, and LiveMint, confirming that the incident occurred in India. Additionally, both the accused, Yuvraj Singh, and the victim, Nisha Soni, were non-Muslim and of Punjabi ethnicity.
