Old image shared as Muslim man stabbed for ‘obscene depiction of Hindu deity'

What's the claim?

An image circulating online shows an injured man, bandaged and lying on the ground, with people holding his hand. It is being claimed that the man is a Muslim who was 'stabbed by a Hindu' in Mewat, in the north Indian state of Haryana, because he allegedly shared an obscene image of the Hindu deity Sita on social media.

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the image, stating in Hindi: "Peace-loving Rahmatullah of Haryana's Mewat had made the nude photo of Maa Sita viral on social media, then a mentally ill youth Naveen attacked him. Now this Rahmatullah is resting in the graveyard." The post garnered 16,000 likes and 3,500 retweets. The same claim was also posted on Facebook. Archives of the posts can be found here and here. 

Screenshot of the image shared online. (Source: X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is misleading. The image of the injured man is actually from Karnataka, not Haryana, and the incident is unrelated to any social media post involving an obscene image of a Hindu deity.

Here are the facts

A reverse image search traced the image to a YouTube channel called 'RD News Kannada ಸುದ್ದಿ ಸಮಯ'  (archive here), which posted the image on July 4, 2022. The video, captioned "Knife stabbing of Muslim youth on Krishnaraja Road in Aluru village of Hiriyur taluk," shows the viral image partially blurred at the 1:19 mark. According to the report, the injured man is Samiullah, a Muslim from Aluru village, Hiriyur Taluk, in Karnataka's Chitradurga district. The attack was reportedly over personal disputes.

Kannada outlet Public TV also covered the incident on July 3, 2022 (archived here), with a report titled "Stabbing for a trivial reason; Accused arrested Chitradurga." This report states that Nuthan, the Hindu attacker, stabbed Samiullah after a confrontation over "staring." The report includes a statement from Chitradurga Superintendent of Police Parushuram, who confirmed that Samiullah was treated at Basveshwara Medical College and Hospital in Chitradurga and that the accused was arrested. Prajavani, a Kannada news outlet, corroborates this account.

Chitradurga Police issued a statement on Facebook (archived here) confirming that the incident occurred on July 2, 2022. The accused was arrested, and the case was filed under section 307. Daijiworld, a news outlet from Mangaluru, reported that while the incident was initially shared online with communal implications, the Chitradurga police clarified that there was no communal motive.

In 2022, the incident was misrepresented online, with claims that the attacker was affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and that the attack had a political or communal angle. The Karnataka police later clarified on their Karnataka State Police Factcheck website that the incident stemmed from personal enmity between the individuals involved.

Additionally, there are no records or reports of an incident involving an obscene image of Hindu deity Sita being shared online, either in 2024 or 2022.

The verdict

An image from 2022, showing a Muslim man who was injured in an attack over personal disputes in Karnataka's Chitradurga, has been misrepresented online. The image is incorrectly associated with a claim that it depicts a man harmed for sharing an inappropriate image of a Hindu deity.