A video of a Hindu woman crying and pleading for help has been circulating on social media, with claims that her 4-year-old daughter was raped or molested by a Muslim boy, who was released from court after a bribe.
An X post by the user @Sanatanvoice_in shared the video with the following caption: “On March 4, in #Jhalakati, #Bangladesh, Nirjhar Sikdar, a Muslim individual, raped a 4-year-old Hindu girl. When he was brought to court, the local court took a bribe and released him. When the victim’s mother protested, the perpetrator also threatened to rape her.”
Some posts making this claim can be found here, here, and here.
Fact-Check
The claim that the accused is Muslim is false. In reality, the accused Nirjon Sikdar belongs to the same Hindu community and is a neighbor of the victim. He was arrested for attempting to rape the child.
While watching the video news report, we noticed the logo of a local online news portal named DNN and found the video report on their YouTube channel. In the video, the accused was referred to as a ‘vagabond neighbor’ and identified as Nirjon Sikder. However, there was no clear mention of his religious identity. The video also showed the complaint filed at the police station, where it was noted that neither the accused’s name nor his father’s name included “Mohammad,” which is commonly found in Muslim names.
Later, during our investigation into the accused’s religious identity, we found a post dated March 19. The post featured the same photo shown in the video report and included a caption stating that the boy is Hindu.
For further confirmation, we contacted the local news portal that made the report and their reporter through the official number provided on their Facebook page to verify the religious identity of the accused. They confirmed that the accused is indeed Hindu and not Muslim.
We found a news report from March on the incident, which mentioned that on March 4, a seven-year-old girl, daughter of an expatriate, went to a nearby field to pick tomatoes. Nirjan, son of Biplab Sikdar from a neighboring house, allegedly lured her to a banana grove and attempted to rape her. On March 9, when Nirjan visited the child’s house, her visible distress caught the attention of her mother. Upon the child’s disclosure of the incident, her grandfather, Nihar Ranjan Mistry, filed a case against Nirjan for attempted rape, resulting in his arrest by the police.
And, recently, the victim’s mother stated in the DNN video report that the accused was granted bail by the court on April 24.
Therefore, the claim that Nirjon Sikdar, the accused in this incident, is a Muslim is false.
Sources
- Facebook Post
- Statement of the Reporter
- News Report on the Incident
