Translation: Aswathy Senan
Kozhikode: Fake news is circulating on Whatsapp on Facebook about the recently wed inter-religious couple Gautham and Anishida. The message thatstates that Anishida has been murdered is a totally fabricated one.
The news report that has been used for this purpose is from another death that was reported in September 2011, a couple of years before the marriage of Anishida and Gautam. The report carries the photograph of the couple along with that of a woman named Rubeena who died much earlier. It is circulating with the message, “In Kerala this Muslim girl who was married one RRS boy one month ago.She was killed after use. Beware of these things.YA ALLAH, save our sisters. AMEEN.”
Rubeena who also had an inter-religious marriage was reported to have bled to death. She was supposed to have slipped and fell on the bathroom floor and hit her head on the floor, though her relatives thought the death was suspicious. The report that is attached to Anishida’s photograph in the fake message is from Rubeena’s death report. But it has not been confirmed if the picture of the woman in the pool of blood is that of Rubeena.
Anishida and Gautam told Doolnews that they have seen the fake message and shall deal with it legally. They will file a case against this on Thursday.
This report is being circulated on Whatsapp targeting especially family groups with the intention of raising communal feeling. Several people have believed this fake news and forwarding it without knowing the reality of it. This is circulated as a warning to Muslim women, with a message to protect them, and a warning against inter-religious marriage.
This fake message has now moved beyond Kerala and is spreading at the national level. It has been shared even by Majlisiithahadul Muslim, an organisation of the Owasi brothers in Hyderabad. It is also circulating on Tamil websites like vkalathur.in and bushracaretrust.com. In those it appears as a warning to Muslim women and goes to the extent of statingthat the victim was brutally raped and murdered.
Anishida and Gautham, who belong to different religions, had been seeing each other for three years before they got married. As their families did not approve of it, they eloped. They were moving from one place to another, and went in hiding for a short while fearing the threats of various fundamentalistorganisations. The couple got married on 8th October 2014 under the Special Marriage Act at the Sports Council Hall, Calicut.
Initially, these fundamentalists tried to separate them stating family honour and the financial issues that Anishida’s family had had to face to fund Anishida’s medical studies. When that did not work, they spread rumours that Gautham is an RSS sympathiser and it was after marriage that he joined the DFYI. They alleged that this was a conspiracy by Hindu fundamentalists to trap a young Muslim girl. When all these failed to make an impact, they came up with this fake murder story.
This fake message was circulated by not only religious fundamentalists, but also by proponents of moderate communitarian politics. The couple was attacked not only through social media, but in person as well. Stones were pelted at their house and also at the house of an advocate in Wayanad who was mistaken to be a relative of theirs.
Advocate Harish Vasudevan says that those who have uploaded this fake news can be charged under forgery which is a non-baillable offence. They can be charged with making incorrect documents and fake electronic documents. Circulating such photos is also punishable under IT Act 66A.
മലയാളത്തിലുള്ള റിപ്പോര്ട്ട് വായിക്കാം:
അന്ഷിത-ഗൗതം ദമ്പതികളെ വര്ഗീയ വാദികള് വെറുതെ വിടുന്നില്ല: ഇപ്പോള് കൊലപാതക വാര്ത്തയുമായി രംഗത്ത്