On June 2, the body of a two-and-a half-year-old girl was found in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Two men, identified as Zahid and Aslam, have been arrested in connection with the crime. The murder has sparked outrage and many took to social media to express their anger.
Many who tweeted about the incident have claimed that the girl had been raped before she was murdered. Some also claimed that the victim’s arm had been amputated, her eyes were gouged out and acid was poured on her body.
This tweet, for instance, has been shared almost 11,000 times so far. Other social media users who made the same assertion as they condemned the murder include Prashant Patel Umrao , Koena Mitra, Shefali Vaidya and Raveena Tandon.
Postmortem report
However, the postmortem report has shown that the girl had not been raped, despite the social media claims. This was clarified by the Aligarh Police via a tweet, in response to a social media user.
The victim was strangulated over a financial dispute with the victim’s family, the authorities said. The two men arrested in connection with the crime are in jail. This was reiterated by the Senior Superintendant of Police, Aligarh, in a video clip posted on Twitter by the Aligarh Police.
No acid poured, no amputation
Alt News contacted Aligarh Senior Superintendant of Police Akash Kulhary, who confirmed that the victim had not been raped.
“The postmortem report mentions death by strangulation as the cause,” he said. “The claims circulating on social media that the victim’s eyes were gouged out and her arm amputated are also false. Also, the claim that acid was poured on her body, is untrue. No such thing has occurred. The postmortem report has been shared with the family of the victim.”
The OpIndia website was among those that had falsely claimed that the victim’s eyes were gouged out.
The misinformation surrounding the incident shared by social media users has the potential to further exacerbate tension and mistrust.
This article first appeared on AltNews.
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