By Anmol Alphonso
A video from Seoni, Madhya Pradesh of a man being beaten up for allegedly stabbing a young woman is being shared with the false claim that a Hindu girl was attacked by a Muslim man.
BOOM spoke to Seoni Police who identified the accused in the viral video as a Sushil Yadav and dismissed the communal angle to the incident.
The video is being shared falsely claiming that a Muslim man stabbed a Hindu girl and claiming it was a case of 'love jihad'. Love Jihad is a term used by right-wing handles to describe a supposed conspiracy theory in which Muslim men target non-Muslim women for conversion to Islam by feigning love.
The 1.43 minutes video is being shared with the caption when translated reads, "Love Jihad happened in Seoni in a Half murder case. A Muslim boy stabbed a Hindu girl and was caught during the incident. The accused was beaten up by the youths and taken to the police station. It is now necessary to retaliate..."
(In Hindi - सिवनी में हुआ लव जिहाद* - के चक्कर में हाफ मर्डर *मुस्लिम लड़के ने हिंदू लड़की को चाकू मारा वारदात के दौरान पकड़ा गया* आरोपी को युवकों ने मार मार कर लेकर पहुंचे थाना *प्रतिकार करना अब जरूरी है।..)
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The same video is being shared widely on Facebook with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the man in the viral video is Sushil Yadav who had allegedly stabbed a woman named Shajroon Hussain in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh.
Taking a hint from the post which states that it is an incident from Seoni, we then ran a keyword search which showed news reports from June 19, 2023, stating that a man named Sushil Yadav had stabbed a 20-year-old woman identified as Shajroon Shakir Hussain on June 12, 2023.
The incident occurred in front of a Hanuman temple at LIV Square and the arrested accused has been identified as Sushil Yadav reported PTI quoting Kotwali police station in-charge Mahadev Nagotiya.
The report further stated that people present at the spot pinned the accused down and beat him up and sent the victim to a hospital where she was undergoing treatment. Nagotiya was further quoted stating that the accused told the police that he had a quarrel with the woman’s brother after which she had filed a complaint against him.
We also found several other news reports on the incident which photos match the visuals in the viral video.
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BOOM contacted Seoni SP Ramji Shrivastava who confirmed that the man in the viral video is Sushil Yadav and dismissed the communal claim that the accused is a Muslim. "The man's name is Sushil Yadav, he is a Hindu, he was arrested after the incident and sent to jail," Shrivastava told BOOM.
We then reached out to Kotwali Police Station under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred. "This stabbing incident happened last week. The accused name is Sushil Yadav, and the victim's name is Shajroon Shakir Hussain. The accused was arrested and has been sent to jail. He had a conflict with the victim's brother. The victim is now stable after the incident," head constable Lalit Markam told BOOM.
