Fact Check: The Woman Tied and Tortured In Gulshan Is Not Hindu

Claim

A video has been circulated on various local and Indian social media platforms claiming that a Hindu woman was tied to a pole in Gulshan and tortured by having cold water poured on her. It is argued that members of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh abducted and tortured the woman because of her Hindu faith. View the videos here, here & here.

Newschecker has verified the claim and found it to be false.

Fact

The claim states that several members of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh abducted a Hindu woman in Gulshan and tortured her by pouring cold water on her during the biting winter cold. To verify the truth of the incident, we initially conducted a relevant keyword search and found several related reports.

According to the reports, the incident took place on Friday, January 2, in front of the Markazut Ta’lim Al Islami Madrasa in the Nadda area of Gulshan.

The reports further reveal that the five individuals involved in the incident are students of that very madrasa. They detained the woman on suspicion of theft and subsequently carried out the act. See the reports here: The Business Standard and EkhonTV. 

To confirm the religious identity of the victim, we spoke with the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Gulshan Police Station, Mahmudur Rahman, who confirmed that the woman is not Hindu. Furthermore, the five accused individuals are not members of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh; rather, three of the five are underage madrasa students.

Therefore, the viral claims are not true.

Result: False

Our Sources:
Conversation with the OC of Gulshan Police Station
The Business Standard and Ekattor TV