Lighthouse Journalism came across a video related to the recent Kolkata doctor rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The video being shared online was claimed to depict the final moments of the victim of the case. During the investigation we found that the dramatised video was recorded by a make up artist as a tribute to the victim.
Claim:
X user Dr Vikas Divyakriti shared the video on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the video with similar claims.
Note: Indian law forbids disclosing the identity of a sexual assault victim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by obtaining keyframes of the video and then ran a reverse image search on these keyframes.
The reverse image search we found the video uploaded by X user Mudassir Das. He shared that the video was originally created by Zeenat Rahman.
Another Facebook post by Munni Thakur on 17th August also mentioned in the caption that the original video was created by Zeenat Rahman.
We then checked for Zeenat Rahman’s account on Facebook.
We found her page on Facebook, however her account was private.
Through a few posts we realised that she had made such posts regarding rape awareness in past too.
Her posts were from 2020. We also tried checking her Instagram profile but we found that the profile has been removed.
We then reached out to the Telugu Post team who were successful in reaching out to her. Zeenat in conversation with the team said, “What happened in Kolkata is truly tragic. Any girl, anywhere-not just in Kolkata-would be shocked to hear this news. How could I stay silent? She might be someone’s daughter, someone’s sister. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for them. I felt their pain deeply, and that compelled me to make this video because I couldn’t remain indifferent.”
She further noted the unfortunate reality that some individuals have shared this video on social media with misleading captions, claiming that the girl in the video is the victim. Some digital creators have even uploaded the video on their platforms with misleading titles, purely to gain more views and likes. “Think about it-who could make a video in such a dire situation? Who would focus on creating content rather than saving their own life? My intentions were never malicious; I simply wanted to amplify the victim’s voice. This video is just a small contribution to the ongoing fight for swift justice for the victims.”
Lighthouse Journalism has also contacted Zeenat for a comment, and the story will be updated once a response is received.
Conclusion: The viral video claiming to show the final moments of the Kolkata rape victim was actually created by makeup artist Zeenat Rahman to raise awareness about rape incidents. The viral claim is misleading.
