Rumour

Some social media users, especially on Facebook and Twitter have been sharing two images which are very graphic. The first image shows a man hovering upon the body of a dead woman and attempting to break the woman’s body at the hip. The second image shows the other man with him with a cloth that has the body of the woman’s body broken and wrapped up. The context given to these images is that the woman’s body had to be broken apart so that it could be carried to do the final procedures as there was no ambulance in the village.

Image 1

Image 2

One of the viral posts was shared by a page on Facebook called the ‘All India Medical Students’ Association’. The page had shared these images on July 22nd of this year with the context given above. However, they have claimed in this post that the man who is attempting to break the body of the woman is her father, which is absolutely false. 

The image is viral on Twitter as well with the same context. A Twitter user claimed that the duo who are breaking the woman's body is father and son.

Our Investigation

Firstly, the images originally date back to 2016. This was easy to identify as these images with a sensational and heartwrenching context were viral a few years ago. However, we could identify the original information about the images by doing a google search using the keywords “woman” “broken” “ambulance”, etc. This led us to articles from mainstream news agencies such as India Today and Indian Express.

From the information given in the articles, we come to know that the woman had passed away after being run over by a goods train near Soro railway station. Due to the lack of ambulance facilities and high charged imposed by auto-rickshaw drivers, the Soro GRP Assistant Sub-Inspector Pratap Rudra Mishra, had asked some workers of the Soro Community Health Centre to carry the body. This incident closely followed another one where a husband had to carry his wife for over 12 kilometers after being denied a hearse due to his low economical conditions. 

Fact

The images being shared virally on social media showing dehumanized treatments of the corpse of a woman is true. However, it is not of recency and is over 3 years old. Moreover, the Facebook post mentioned above claimed that the man trying to break the woman’s body at the hip is her father, which is not true. He is one of the workers from the Soro Health Community Centre.