Youngster beaten to death at temple festival in Kozhikode; Three taken into custody
Kozhikode: A 20-year-old youngster was beaten to death by a group of men during a temple festival at Palakkandi, Palakkottuvayal, Kozhikode. The deceased has been identified as Suraj, son of Bobby, a resident of Ambalakandi.
According to locals, a dispute had broken out between Suraj and his friends late last night, which allegedly led to the fatal attack. Around 15 to 20 men reportedly assaulted Suraj at the festival venue.
The Chevayur police have taken three suspects into custody, including a father and his two sons who live nearby. The investigation is currently underway to ascertain the exact sequence of events.
In February, Kozhikode had witnessed a similar tragedy when Muhammed Shahabas, a Class 10 student, was beaten to death following a conflict during a farewell party at a local tuition centre. Shahabas, who was not a student of the centre, became involved in a fight between students of MJHSS Elettil School and Thamarassery GVHSS. A technical glitch that interrupted the music reportedly triggered the altercation, which escalated into violence involving the use of a deadly martial arts weapon, nunchaku.
Last Friday, the Kerala High Court denied bail to five juveniles accused in Shahabas's murder case.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
