A screenshot of a WhatsApp message, along with the graphic image of a woman's dead body found on a road, is going viral on social media.
What does the claim say?: The claim states that the image shows a nurse working in a hospital in Manipur, who belonged to the Meitei tribal community, was allegedly raped and killed by people from the Kuki tribe.
(Note: We have refrained from adding any archive links due to the distressing nature of the visuals.)
Several users shared this message on social media platforms.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
What is the truth?: We found out that this image dates back to November 2022 when a woman's body was found in a red suitcase near Yamuna expressway in Mathura.
The deceased has been identified as Aayushi Chaudhary who was allegedly shot dead by her parents, who did not approve of her marriage to a man from another caste, as per the police.
How did we find out the truth?: On performing a simple reverse image search on the viral image, we found several news reports about this case.
We found Amar Ujala and Aaj Tak's reports from 21 November 2022 carrying the viral image.
The reports stated that this body was identified as Aayushi Chaudhary Yadav, a 21-year-old woman's body.
It also added that the body was found in a red suitcase near the Yamuna expressway in Mathura.
The article can be seen here.
Source: Aaj Tak/ Screenshot)
The Quint had also reported on the case and found that the deceased was allegedly shot dead by her parents.
The report added that Yadav was allegedly shot dead by her parents on 17 November 2022 and dumped on a highway by her parents.
The police have arrested the parents of the deceased.
What is happening in Manipur?: On 3 May a tribal solidarity march was organised by the All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur (ATSUM) against the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
Shortly after, Violence erupted in the state that resulted in least 60 deaths and displacement of more than 35,000 people.
Different communal claims around Yadav's case: We had debunked communal claims around this alleged murder last year.
We had then contacted the Martand Prakash Singh, additional superintendent of police, Mathura, who said, "The incident is not communal. The girl married a guy called Chatrapal Singh Gujjar, who is from a different caste. The girl's parents found out about the wedding and argued, which lead to her murder."
Conclusion: Clearly, an old image of a dead body found in Uttar Pradesh is being falsely shared as an incident of rape and murder in Manipur.
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