India is on the boil over the gruesome rape and murder case of a trainee doctor in Kolkata with a large number of people sharing their anguish on social media. Unfortunately, the online outrage over the tragedy at the RG Kar hospital has been exploited as a bait by mischievous users. These include creating fake profiles of the victim as well as spreading fake claims about more rapes.

Google Trends data shows the phrase “Kolkata doctor case full story” was searched for more than 20 lakh times in the last six days. Users searched for the victim’s photos and videos more than two lakh times.

A case in point is the false claim that a female student was raped in Kolkata while she was returning after participating in a protest at RG Kar hospital, where the trainee doctor was raped and killed by a civil volunteer last week.

The social media claims identified her as Ankita Bauri from Burdwan University. “The goons crushed her face with a stone so that no one could recognise her. They slit her throat open! The media is still silent! Is this what we get as a result of seeking justice??? Is this the society we are living in???” it read.

The post quickly went viral on social media sites. On Instagram, it was shared by at least 680,000 users according to viral user ‘Stories’ seen by India Today. The original post was later taken down following a clarification by the police. The unchecked spread of the post was enabled by Instagram’s feature that allows users to add updates posted by others in the ‘Stories’ section with just a simple click.

The spread of the false claim was also seen on X, where it featured in about 3,000 posts published by 378 users.

On X, the fake claim appeared to have first been made by a user who goes by the pseudonym ‘Flirt’ (@Obnoxi0us) on August 16. An analysis revealed that this account was created last month after the suspension of another account named @ti*sandcl**s. “Today I saved a girl from being r*ped by controlling myself,” reads one of the posts shared by the account.

The misinformation wasn’t limited to social media. A Noida-based Hindi news portal, ‘Newsnasha’ and a Baghpat-based NGO named ‘AIMA Media’ published a story based on the fake claim.

Some fake videos claiming to show the victim’s last moments were also circulating online.

Social media users involved in peddling these fake claims seem to eying the massive interests surrounding several aspects of the rape case.
Police crackdown on fake claims

Kolkata Police have launched an investigation into misleading claims made by people on social media and have summoned at least 280 people for questioning. Two people have been arrested.

In a statement, the city police said that they detected several users based in Pakistan and Bangladesh spreading misinformation on social media regarding the doctor rape case.

Sources in the Kolkata Police told India Today TV that many social media accounts have been removed for spreading misinformation.

What’s worse? Some individuals seem to be exploiting public anger to gain more social media followers. Scores of accounts impersonating the Kolkata rape victim have been created on Instagram over the last few days.