Recently, a video has been shared on social media claiming that a Hindu boy was killed in Bangladesh, portraying it as an incident of Hindu persecution.
An X (formerly Twitter) handle posted the video with the caption: “Bangladeshi Hindu boy Sumon mu₹dered & his body dumped in a river in Islamic Bangladesh. Regime change in Bangladesh has opened the floodgates of Hindu persecution.”
Fact-Check
Rumor Scanner investigated and found the claim to be false. The video does not show a Hindu man named Sumon. It actually depicts the body of a Muslim auto driver who was murdered, and his vehicle was reportedly robbed.
Our investigation led us to a Facebook live of the same dead body, which was broadcast from a Facebook ID named Juwel Rana on January 28. The caption of the live video reads: “Unidentified dead body found under Darikandi Bridge, Sonargaon, Narayanganj.”
Another video shows the dead body being recovered, and the video mentions that the identity of the body has been confirmed. The caption of the post refers to it as the body of an auto driver.
Later, we found several media reports on the incident. The reports confirmed the deceased as Noyon, a 30-year-old Muslim auto driver.
A report of Daily Observer published on January 28 states: “Police recovered the body of an auto-rickshaw driver from the Brahmaputra River at Sonargoan upazila in Narayanganj District on Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Noyon, 30, son of late Joynal Abedin from Tikkapara area of Mohammadpur Police Station in the capital. He used to live in Belpara area under Sadipur union of the upazila.”
Another media reported on January 29, “A group of robbers murdered an auto-rickshaw driver named Nayan (the son of the late Zainal Abedin) in Sonargaon, Narayanganj, by binding his hands and feet and stabbing him with a sharp weapon, then dumped his body into the Brahmaputra River while stealing his auto-rickshaw. On Monday (January 28) night, after killing the driver in the Darikandi area, they threw his body into the Brahmaputra River and took the rickshaw.”
Thus, the video of the dumped dead body of a Muslim auto-rickshaw driver named Nayan was shared as that of a Hindu man named Suman, with a communal spin. Therefore, the claim that a Hindu boy named Sumon was murdered in Bangladesh is false.
