The alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at Kolkata's R G Kar Medical College and Hospital sparked several unverified theories on social media about various aspects of the crime. Soon after the discovery of the body on August 9, the names of two junior doctors -- Arshean Alam and Golam Azam -- started doing the rounds as the 'real culprits'. Some claimed they had fled the country after committing the crime.
Alt News presented their side of the story. In our investigation, we found that none of them were at the hospital's emergency building when the crime was committed. Arshean was at his home; Golam was in his hostel. And none of them is absconding.
Lately, some more names have been circulated on social media platforms and WhatsApp messages as the actual perpetrators of the crime. Ome of them is Tania Yasmin/ Tania Yasmin Khatoon. Some X (formerly Twitter) users have also shared her supposed pictures while claiming that she was directly involved in the alleged rape and murder.
A user named @rajasolanki71070 tweeted a picture of a woman in green scrubs and a mask alongside the image of the victim and claimed that the woman was the victim's friend Tania Yasmin who had pinned down the victim while she was being tortured. She then urged 'Hindu sisters' not to befriend 'such girls'.
Some other X users shared two photos together. In these tweets, a man in pink shirt has been identified as Dr Shahbaz Khan, one of the six 'Senior doctors' involved in the crime. Below are a few screenshots:
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The Photos
A combination of reverse image searches and keyword searches revealed the source of the above photos. Both the images were procured from the LinkedIn profiles of individuals with the names Shahbaz Khan and Tania Yasmin. According to the LinkedIn profile, Shahbaz is a college student in Kolkata. Tania is an operation-theatre technician working with a private hospital in Kolkata. We are withholding further details about them to protect their identity.
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It appears that someone performed a google search with these names and lifted the photos from the LinkedIn pages that appeared in the search results.
Alt News Spoke to Tania Yasmin
We met Tania Yasmin who hails from the Hooghly district and is now based in Kolkata. She is not a doctor. She works as an OT technician at a private hospital. Tania pursued a paramedical diploma course (OT technician) from R G Kar Medical College and Hospital from February 2021 to May 2023. "The last time I have been to R G Kar was in December 2023. I had gone there to collect my certificate," she told us.
"I was at work on August 9 and at my PG accommodation in the night. I got to know about the crime on the next day from the news. There is no question of me knowing the victim," she further said.
"A few days later, I found that my name and the Facebook profile link had been shared by some users who wrote that I had been a friend of the victim and that I had left the country. Then I started receiving messages on Facebook with filthy abuses and threats. I then lodged a complaint with the cyber cell of Kolkata Police," she added.
Tania also shared screenshots of the Facebook messages with Alt News. We have also seen a copy of the complaint lodged with Kolkata police's cyber crime cell at Patuli police station. The users named in the complaint are Sudipta Kar and Aishwariya Sarkar.
Alt News Spoke to Police, R G Kar Doctors
We asked three of our sources at R G Kar (two interns and a postgraduate trainee) about Tania Yasmin. All of them said they did not know anyone by that name.
A source in Kolkata police confirmed to us that no one by the name Tania Yasmin had come under the purview of the R G Kar rape and murder investigation. "Tania Yasmin Khatoon was never investigated by us. And as per our investigation she was not among those who had dinner with victim," the source told Alt News.
Alt News is also in the know of the names of four other junior doctors who were interrogated by the CBI in connection with the case. No one named Tania Yasmin or Tania Yasmin Khatoon is among them.
To sum up, there is no evidence to back the claim that someone named Tania Yasmin was involved in the alleged rape and murder of a junior doctor at Kolkata's R G Kar hospital. A photo of an OT technician named Tania Yasmin is falsely viral in this context.
(With inputs from Shinjinee Majumder and Oishani Bhattacharya)
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