Photo of UP Minor Shared as 8-Year-Old Murder Victim in Kolkata
The Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) confirmed that the viral image was not related to the Jorabagan case.
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A photo of a minor has been falsely linked to a case of an eight-year-old girl who was found brutally raped and murdered in Kolkata’s Jorabagan area.
The viral image is actually from a case in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, where a 16-year-old girl reportedly died by suicide following alleged molestation and blackmail by a local businessman.
The Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Murlidhar Sharma with the Kolkata Police also confirmed to The Quint’s WebQoof team that the viral image was not related to the case in Jorabagan.
(NOTE: The Quint has blurred the screenshots and left out the links for the social media posts to protect the identity of the minor.)
CLAIM
Several social media users shared the image of a minor girl linking it to the case in Kolkata, while demanding justice for the victim.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a reverse image search, we came across a report dated 27 October on Amar Ujala, carrying the viral image.
According to the report, a minor girl had died by suicide after jumping from the fourth floor of an under-construction building in UP’s Etah. The father of the victim alleged that a youth used to harass the girl, following which the accused was arrested by the Etah police, according to Om Prakash Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police.
We also came across social media posts dating back to November 2020, carrying the same image, demanding justice for the victim.
Since the picture existed much before the incident in Kolkata and the lanyard of the girl’s school ID card also says ‘Etah’, clearly it’s unrelated to the case.
In a report by The Indian Express, a police officer stated that the accused, a local businessman, had the victim’s photograph on his cellphone and used to blackmail her. The police pressed charges of sexual harassment and abetment of suicide and also invoked sections of the POCSO Act against him.
WHAT HAPPENED IN KOLKATA?
An eight-year-old girl was found murdered in Jorabagan area, Kolkata on Thursday, 4 February according to a report by the Times of India. Her body was found partially clothed with her throat slit, teeth smashed and clumps of her hair torn.
She had been reported missing by her family on Wednesday evening. It was later established by the police that the girl had also been gang-raped by the accused.
Sharma told The Quint’s WebQoof team, that the police has arrested Ram Kumar, 40, who was a security guard and Ranbir Tanty alias Raghubir, 43, who hails from Begusarai, Bihar.
The police had initially charged Kumar under sections 376AB, for rape on a woman under twelve years of age, and 302, for murder, of the IPC, along with section six of the POCSO Act, for sexually assaulting a minor.
However, once Tanty’s role in the crime was established, the section were revised to 376DB – for gangrape on a woman under twelve years of age – and Section 34 of the IPC – for criminal act done by “several persons in furtherance of the common intention” – was added.
Both of them are under police custody till 18 February, Sharma added.
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