On 30 October, a 20-year-old woman hailing from Rasalpur Habib village under Desari block of Bihar’s Vaishali district was burnt alive for allegedly resisting a molestation bid. After battling for her life at a government hospital in Patna for fifteen days, Gulnaz lost her life on Sunday, November 15.

Amid this, a picture of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav participating in a candle march has gone viral on social media with a false claim that it shows Tejashwi leading a march to demand justice for the victim.

 A Facebook user name Rafique Ahmed shared the picture with a caption that "Tejashwi Yadav has taken to the streets to lead a candle march demanding justice for Bihar’s daughter Gulnaz. Let’s see how long will the perpetrators escape from justice. It’s a great sign that people are now raising their voices against this corrupt system". ( Translated from Hindi )

The same image is also widely shared on Twitter with the same claim. 

Fact Check 

In our investigation, we found that the viral claim is false. The viral image is from the year 2018 when Tejashwi Yadav joined a candle march to protest against the murder of a businessman named Gunjan Khemka and the rising crime in Bihar. This photo has nothing to do with the Gulnaz Khatoon, murder case.

After doing reverse image research on Google, we found a news report published on 24 December 2018 in which the same image was used. According to the report, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav lead a candle march against the declining law and order situation in Bihar. The march was organized to protest the killing of a young businessman Gunjan Khemka. He was joined by hundreds of businessmen and traders during the candle march in Bihar's capital demanding justice for the murdered young businessman. 

The image was also shared by Tejashwi Yadav on his official Twitter handle and shared pictures of the candle march held on the streets of Patna in 2018. The tweet reads, “In protest of the murder of businessman Gunjan Khemka and the increasing crime in Bihar, there was a peaceful candlelight march this evening in Patna organized by various social, business, and industrial organizations. The march was from Patna’s JP Golambar to Dakbangla intersection.”

In conclusion,  an old image from 2018 when Tejashwi Yadav did a candle march in protest against the murder of businessman Gunjan Khemka was circulated on social media with false claims that he took out a candle march to demand justice for a young Muslim woman Gulnaz Khatoon who was burnt alive recently.