By Shinjinee Majumder

A video of two visibly distraught women, one of whom is seen wearing a burqa, being remonstrated by a group of men is viral on social media with users claiming that the burqa-clad woman was attempting to commit ‘Love Jihad’ by asking the other woman, who is a Hindu, to wear a burqa and get involved with a Muslim man. The video was shared with the same claim by the verified Right Wing account @ajaychauhan41. “…This is Love Jihad”, the user wrote. (Archive)

https://twitter.com/ajaychauhan41/status/1763977287098359942?t=L_euA-q6ny4McnFiknMwAw&s=19

The readers should note that @ajaychauhan41 shares communal misinformation on X regularly. Alt News has debunked falsehoods amplified by this user several times.

User @ImSudhakarRao tweeted the same video with the same claim in Kannada. (Archive)

https://twitter.com/ImSudhakarRao/status/1764117319281005032?t=96y2PotCQUzmYJz3WNNi9Q&s=19

Several other users including @sanatan_kannada and @FollowAkshay1 amplified the viral video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Fact Check

We noticed that users had pointed out that the viral video was from 2021. The incident took place in the Kodagu district in Karnataka. Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search and found a The News Minute article titled, “Karnataka’s Kodagu saw five hate crimes in just two weeks”, dated November 23, 2021, which contains a frame from the viral video.

According to the report, two Muslim girls were harassed by a group of men from Hindutva groups at a bus stop in Shanivarasanthe on November 18, 2021. The mob reportedly accused the girls of handing over a burqa to a classmate who was Christian. Shanivarsanthe police inspector Parashiva Murthy stated that nothing untoward was happening and that the Christian girl had kept the burqa with her since there was no space in their bags. He added that she was coming to the bus stop to return it to the Muslim girls. Despite this, the Muslim girls were threatened, slapped and beaten by the mob in public.

Read Full Story https://www.altnews.in/muslim-girls-harassed-by-hindutva-activists-in-karnataka-2021-video-viral-with-love-jihad-spin/