Two graphic videos showing a woman and two children lying in a pool of blood have been shared with a false claim that a man named 'Ajmal Khan' had fallen in love with a Hindu woman in Rajasthan and killed her family when the woman's father didn't approve of their relationship.
However, we found that the incident took place in Ajmer, Rajasthan, where a man called Ajit Cheetah had tried to kill his wife and two daughters because of a domestic issue. We spoke with Surendra Singh Jodha, the investigating officer from Ajmer who confirmed to us that the incident was not communal and the claim shared on the internet is completely false.
CLAIM
Two videos of the incident were shared on different social media platforms with a caption that read, "राज्यस्थान में एक मुस्लिम अजमल खान एक हिन्दु परिवार की लड़की पर लट्टू हो गया और उसके बाप के पास घर रिश्ता ले के पंहुचा. लड़की के बाप ने उसे धमका के भगा दिया कहा तुम मुस्लिम हो, हम हिन्दु है और हम ये गलत काम नहीं करेंगे। और फिर अजमल खान अगले दिन हथियार लेके गया और एक DNA वाले हिन्दु परिवार के सारे लोगो को मार डाला".
[Translation: Ajmal Khan, a Muslim in Rajasthan, fell in love with a girl from a Hindu family and reached her father's house to ask for her hand. The girl's father threatened him and drove him away saying that you are a Muslim, we are a Hindu and we will not approve of this wedding. Then Ajmal Khan went the next day with a weapon and killed all the members of a Hindu family.]
Note: The Quint has not used any links in the story due to the graphic nature of the content.
(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)
Similar claims were shared by other social media users. We have decided not to include links to the archives in the story because of the graphic nature of the video.
We also received the claim on our WhatsApp tipline.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We conducted a keyword seach on Google to check the viral claim but could not find any news reports of a man called Ajmal Khan killing a family for not being able to marry a Hindu girl.
We then extracted keyframes from the viral video by using InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension and coducted a reverse image search on some of them.
That lead us to a Twitter post (Warning: The scenes in the video are extremely graphic), which had one of the videos. However, the caption said that the incident was from Rajasthan's Ajmer, where a man had tried to kill his daughters and wife because of unemployment. We also found the mention of the Ajmer incident in the comments section of several posts.
Taking a cue from the comments and the tweet, we contacted the Ajmer police.
The Quint spoke with Surendra Singh Jodha, the investigating officer from Beawar Sadar police station who told us that the incident was not communal in nature.
"A man called Ajit Cheetah had attacked his wife Kavita and daughters called Angel and Anu on 14 July while he was intoxicated. Both his daughters passed away and his wife has been admitted to the hospital. He has been arrested," Jodha said.
The police also told us that Ajit and Kavita had a love marriage about 10 years ago.
Ajit belongs to the Cheetah Mehrat community, which comprises both Hindus and Muslims. The police said that in their initial investigations they have found that Ajit had Hindus in his family but he identified as a Muslim.
Jodha also told us that Ajit was depressed because of the pandemic and unemployment. However, there have been unverified reports from his neighbours that he was upset because his wife had gotten a hysterectomy that prevented him from having more kids.
"He had two daughters and he wanted a boy and so, he might have gotten upset," Jodha told The Quint.
We found reports of the incident on Hindi news publications as well. A report in Dainik Jagran said that Ajit had attacked his family because he was depressed due to unemployment and financial crisis. The report also added that he was burdened with household chores after Kavita’s hysterectomy.
A report in Patrika carried the photo of Ajit, which was also seen in one of the viral videos.
We also found Ajmer Police's written response on a tweet from First India News. In its response, the police said that Kavita's family had refused to come as they were upset with her for deciding to marry Ajit 10 years ago.
Clearly, the news about a man in Rajasthan attacking his wife and killing his daughters was shared with a fictious story about a man called Ajmal Khan killing a Hindu girl's family after being rejected by her family.
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