Fact Check: No ‘Love Jihad’ — this Muslim man did not kill his wife for being Hindu, they are both Muslim

A video of a young man confessing to murdering his wife has gone viral on social media. The video is that of an interview, during which, he is asked why he did so. To this, the man can be seen saying killed his wife in reverence of “Khuda” or God.

He said that he killed his wife after a year of marriage four days ago. He added that he did it because it was a matter of Islam’s honour. He declared that he was not in love with his wife, rather he was in love with Islam. The words, “He killed his wife because she was a Hindu,” appeared in the video as he confessed to his alleged crime.

The video ended with a montage of photos of women, who were all purported victims of "Love Jihad", a far-right conspiracy theory that alleges Muslim men lure Hindu women into marrying them and subsequently convert them to Islam.

“How proudly he is saying that he K!lled [sic] his wife just because she was Hindu,” said a tweet containing the video. At the time of writing this, the tweet had been retweeted by more than 2,800 people. The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.

India Today’s investigation found the man did not kill his wife for being Hindu, as the victim was also Muslim.

The victim’s identity

According to the viral post, the man in the video said that he killed his wife because she was Hindu. However, nowhere in the video did he make such a statement.

Upon reviewing the video, we noticed the logo of “Insaaf 24” on the microphone used by the interviewer. When we checked the social media accounts of the channel, we found a longer version of the same interview shared on its Facebook page. In this video, the man accused of murder identified himself as Mahbub from the Bangra village in the Samastipur district of Bihar. In the extended interview as well, there was no mention of the wife being Hindu.

India Today then reached out to Avinash Kumar, the SHO of the Bangra police station. Dismissing the viral claim, the officer said that both the accused and the victim were Muslims. "The husband's name was Mahbub Alam and the wife was 22-year-old Yasmeen. Both were Muslims and they were married per Islamic rituals," the inspector said.

India Today then spoke to Yasmeen's mother, who confirmed that they are a Muslim family. According to her, Yasmeen was killed on April 14, and she was pregnant at the time of her death. The First Information Report was also filed on the same date.

India Today also obtained a copy of Mahbub and Yasmeen's marriage certificate, as well as Yasmeen's Aadhaar card. In the marriage document, Yasmeen's name was mentioned as Yasmeen Khatoon, daughter of Gaffar Nawab. The Aadhaar card mentions only Yasmeen as her name.

The murder

In the viral video, Mahbub said that he killed his wife for the sake of Islam’s honour. However, there have been conflicting testimonies in this regard. When India Today asked SHO Avinash Kumar about the motive behind the murder, he said that Mahbub was “fully mental”.

Kumar said that Mahbub had fatally beaten Yasmeen (though the postmortem report is yet to be presented) and in the aftermath, he was caught and restrained by his neighbours, who called the police. The SHO added that even according to the neighbours, Mahbub was mentally unstable. However, he also said that no psychiatric examination had yet been conducted.

Pressed further about the motive, Kumar told India Today that Yasmeen’s family had alleged that she was killed over dowry demands. And according to the FIR as well, police have registered a case against Mahbub and five of his family members for dowry death under Sections 304 (B) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Mahbub’s family, per the SHO, is absconding.

Yasmeen’s family disputes the mental illness angle. Speaking to India Today, Yasmeen’s father Abdul Gaffar Nadaf dismissed it and said that they would have never wedded their daughter to him had he been of unsound mind, further adding that they would not have let Yasmeen stay with him had they discovered this later. He also said that Mahbub had demanded an LCD TV, a motorcycle, an almirah, and Rs. 2 lakh in cash as part of the dowry, sometime before Yasmeen’s murder. These allegations were also repeated by Yasmeen’s mother Obila.

Thus, it is clear that the man in the viral video did not murder his wife for being Hindu. Both the alleged murderer and the victim are Muslim.