In April 2025, violent protests erupted in Murshidabad, West Bengal, over the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. This resulted in the deaths of many and led to the ransacking of TMC MP Khalilur Rehman’s office, arson of police vehicles and disruption of train services.
In the above context, an image of a family (a husband, wife and son) has gone viral on social media. The image is being shared with a caption claiming that the family was a Hindu that was killed by Muslims in West Bengal. The image also has a text embedded on it that reads, “Their only fault was that they were Hindus. Next can be your house if you do not turn into a radical Hindu.” The post insinuated that the incident is related to the recent protests over the Waqf Act.
A social media user shared the image with a graphic description of the alleged attack in the caption.
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. We found it was from 2019, and it has no communal violence involved in it.
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same image was published by One India on October 11, 2019. The report associated with the image stated that a schoolteacher, his wife, and their six-year-old son were brutally murdered in Murshidabad, West Bengal. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar condemned the killings, calling them a reflection of the State’s deteriorating law and order situation. The incident took a political turn when the RSS claimed the teacher was affiliated with them, prompting the BJP to criticise the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. In response, the TMC accused the Governor of making politically motivated statements and questioned his silence during attacks on their party workers.
We further found that the incident was reported by Amar Ujala on October 15, 2019. The report suggested that in the above incident, West Bengal police arrested Utpal Behra, a mason, for the brutal murders of schoolteacher Bandhu Prakash Pal, his pregnant wife Beauty, and their 8-year-old son Angan in Jiaganj, Murshidabad. The killings occurred during Durga Puja festivities and initially sparked political controversy, with the BJP and RSS alleging Pal’s affiliation with the RSS and criticising the state’s law and order situation. However, police investigations revealed that the motive was a financial dispute: Behra had paid Pal Rs 48,000 for two life insurance policies but received a receipt for only half the amount. Repeated confrontations and insults from Pal led Behra to commit the murders, which he confessed to upon arrest. Authorities ruled out any political or communal angle in the case.
The incident was also reported by Jagran.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.
