Sharing a video of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka leaders meeting Niranjan Hiremath, Congress councillor and father of Neha Hiremath, who was killed by her former classmate in a Karnataka college on 18 April, social media users claimed that "not one single person from Congress visited Neha's house."
Since the accused in the case is from the Muslim community, the claim also accuses the Congress of Muslim appeasement.
An archive of this claim can be seen here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
This post by X user 'SaffronSunanda' had gathered over 113,000 views at the time of writing this report.
(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here, here, and here.)
Is it true?: No. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala have both met Neha Hiremath's family.
Karnataka's state-level ministers have also visited the Hiremath residence.
How did we find out?: Using keywords such as 'Congress leader visit Neha Hiremath', we looked for more information on Google.
This search led us to news reports, which mentioned that Congress leaders had, in fact, met the Hiremath family.
A report by The Hindu mentioned that Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and Law Minister HK Party had visited the Hiremath residence on 25 April, and assured them of the government's support "in a time of distress."
Another article by NDTV mentioned that Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala had also met the family and addressed the media with the deceased's father, Congress municipal councillor Niranjan Hiremath.
Surjewala shared visuals of the meeting on his official X account.
We also came across a video of Siddaramaiah at the Hiremath residence, as shared by news agency PTI on its X account.
As per news agency ANI, Siddaramaiah "strongly condemned" the murder and handed the case over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID). He also spoke to the public prosecutor to fast track Neha's court case.
Using similar keywords as the previous search in Kannada – 'ನೇಹಾ ಹಿರೇಮಠ್ ಅವರನ್ನು ಭೇಟಿ ಮಾಡಿದ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ನಾಯಕರು' – which led us to a report by Vijay Karnataka.
This report mentioned that Karnataka's Minister for Women and Child Development, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, had also met Neha's parents at their residence.
Conclusion: The viral claim that Congress leaders had not met Neha Hiremath's family is false.
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