Even though a week has passed after the results of the West Bengal Assembly polls were declared, post–poll violence in the state still continues. Fake news, incitement of communal violence, and online hate speech is in full display in the state – all of them criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code. Violence, loot, and threats were being reported in different parts of the state since 2nd May. Till 3rd May, when the Model Code of Conduct was lifted, law and order in every state that went to polls, including in West Bengal, was the responsibility of the Election Commission, as per protocol. Amid this a disturbing video is viral on social media in which one can see a man being brutally hacked to death using a machete. The video is being circulated with a claim that it is of West Bengal’s post-poll violence that erupted after the State Assembly elections result was declared on 2nd May, 2021.
The descriptions that are being shared with the video claim that ‘TMC goons’ murdered BJP worker Uttam Ghosh in Gangapur Ranaghat, West Bengal during post-poll violence. The caption of the video is a quote attributed to Ghosh’s wife. The text in Hindi translates to: TMC workers dragged my husband out of the house and told him, “Now say Jai Shri Ram. Where are your BJP supporters? Who will save you now?” Saying this, they killed my husband.
Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim along with the video to be misleading. This is a 2017 video from Brazil and not related to the ongoing violence in Bengal. Using InVID tool and Yandex search engine, a reverse image search of keyframes of the video was done and similar images were found in a Brazilian news report from early 2018. As per these reports, the video is of a murder that took place on December 30, 2017, in Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceara. According to a report, the victim, identified as 17-year-old Wesley Tiago de Sousa Carvalho, was lynched in the tourist district of Praia do Futuro, in Fortaleza. Investigators at the time dismissed claims that Carvalho was killed because of his sexual orientation and gender identity and instead said it was a settling of accounts between gangs. Online platforms such as Esquera Diario had also published an article in 2018 carrying similar visual as in the viral video. The video itself also makes clear that the incident did not take place in India, let alone West Bengal, because of the foreign language being spoken by the attackers and the victim, as well as different facial features. According to Monolitopost, the police found that the suspects had thrown stones and pieces of wood at the victim. The police had arrested two accused José Carlos Evangelista dos Anjos and Luciano Alves de Souza, while the other two suspects Abraão Jhonny Alves de Freitas and a woman identified only as Carine were absconding.
Although as per an article by The Wire, Uttam Ghosh was allegedly killed in post-poll violence. However, the viral video is from an incident that took place in Brazil. And thus, the ongoing viral claim is misleading.
