In the fields of Baburha village, two young girls were found dead — and in the silence that followed, a second struggle emerged online. Uttar Pradesh police filed criminal complaints against eight Twitter accounts, alleging that users deliberately spread false claims of sexual assault and improper burial rites, contradicting official post-mortem findings. The episode sits at the uneasy intersection of grief, political contestation, and the state's expanding reach into digital speech — where the question of who controls the narrative around tragedy carries its own form of consequence.
UP police file FIR against 8 Twitter handles for spreading misinformation in Unnao case
Two minor girls found dead in Baburha village; circumstances and cause of death disputed between authorities and social media accounts.
Anyone attempting to inflame tensions through social media will face legal consequences
Mark
So the police are saying these Twitter accounts deliberately lied about what happened to these girls. What exactly were they claiming?
Mimi
They said the girls had been sexually assaulted and that the families didn't want the funeral rites performed the way they were. The police say the post-mortem ruled out rape and that the family actually asked for the delay because relatives were coming from Surat.
Luke
But we don't actually know what happened to these girls, do we? The police are saying the post-mortem ruled out sexual assault, but that's the police's account. We don't have independent verification of what the post-mortem actually showed.
Mimi
That's fair. What we know is that two girls were found dead, and there's a dispute about the facts. The police are treating the social media posts as lies, but some of those posts might have been people genuinely questioning the official account.
Mark
And the Congress leader—Udit Raj—what did he actually tweet?
Mimi
The article doesn't say. It just says he was booked for spreading misinformation, but we don't see what he actually posted.
Luke
That's a significant gap. We're being told he spread false information, but we're not shown the evidence. We're asked to trust the police characterization.
Mark
Is there any indication these were coordinated efforts, or is the police just assuming that because they're all saying similar things?
Mimi
The police superintendent said they were affiliated with parties and groups trying to discredit the government. But again, that's the police's interpretation. People might independently reach similar conclusions without coordination.
Luke
Exactly. The police are framing this as a deliberate campaign, but the article doesn't show us the actual coordination. It's possible, but it's also possible that multiple people just reacted skeptically to the official account.
Mark
So what's actually being prosecuted here?
Mimi
Spreading rumors with intent to cause riots, and violations of the IT Act. But the underlying question—what really happened to these girls—that's still unclear.
The Pulse
- Two minor girls found dead in a village field set off a wave of social media posts alleging sexual assault and disrespect of the family's burial wishes — claims authorities say were false.
- Police filed FIRs against eight Twitter accounts simultaneously, framing the posts not as isolated opinions but as a coordinated effort to incite communal unrest and discredit the state government.
- A former Congress MP was separately booked the day prior, deepening the political dimension and suggesting law enforcement views the online activity as opposition-driven interference.
- Authorities say post-mortem results ruled out rape and that funeral arrangements were delayed only because family members were traveling — presenting these as proof of deliberate misinformation.
- The crackdown leaves the most fundamental questions unanswered: how the girls died, under what circumstances, and whether the truth will emerge from police investigation or independent scrutiny.
In the fields of Baburha village, two young girls were found dead — and in the silence that followed, a second struggle emerged online. Uttar Pradesh police filed criminal complaints against eight Twitter accounts, alleging that users deliberately spread false claims of sexual assault and improper burial rites, contradicting official post-mortem findings. The episode sits at the uneasy intersection of grief, political contestation, and the state's expanding reach into digital speech — where the question of who controls the narrative around tragedy carries its own form of consequence.
On a Sunday in Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh police filed criminal complaints against eight Twitter accounts whose operators had posted claims about two minor girls found dead in Baburha village. Authorities alleged the posts were not merely mistaken but deliberately crafted to mislead — asserting that the girls had been sexually assaulted and that their funeral rites were conducted against the family's wishes.
The Superintendent of Police, Anand Kulkarni, described the effort as coordinated, implicating political figures, activists, and affiliated networks in what he characterized as a campaign to destabilize public order and damage the ruling administration's credibility. Charges included spreading rumors to provoke communal violence and violations of the Information Technology Act. Several of the disputed posts were deleted after police issued a statement citing post-mortem findings that ruled out sexual assault.
This action followed a separate case filed the previous day against Udit Raj, a former Member of Parliament and Congress leader, on similar misinformation charges — reinforcing the police framing of a politically motivated pattern rather than scattered individual posts.
Kulkarni also addressed the funeral rites controversy, clarifying that neither police nor local officials had intervened in the ceremony; the family had simply asked to wait for relatives traveling from Surat. He presented these clarifications as evidence that the accounts had knowingly distorted the facts.
What the episode leaves unresolved is more than a legal dispute over tweets. The cause and circumstances of the two girls' deaths remain contested, and the simultaneous crackdown on digital speech raises enduring questions about where the line falls between correcting misinformation and suppressing scrutiny of the state.
On Sunday, police in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district filed a criminal complaint against eight Twitter accounts and their operators, accusing them of spreading false information about the deaths of two minor girls discovered in Baburha village. The case centers on what authorities say were deliberate misstatements posted to social media in the days following the discovery of the bodies in the fields.
According to the police account, users of these eight accounts had tweeted claims that the girls had been sexually assaulted and that their funeral rites were performed against the wishes of their families. The Superintendent of Police for Unnao, Anand Kulkarni, said the posts were designed to incite unrest and undermine public confidence in the state government. He characterized the effort as coordinated, suggesting that people affiliated with political parties, activist groups, and other organizations were working deliberately to damage the ruling administration's credibility and destabilize local order.
The charges filed against the account holders include spreading rumors with intent to provoke communal violence, along with violations of the Information Technology Act. Kulkarni stated that police would investigate the tweets and that anyone attempting to inflame tensions through social media would face legal consequences. He noted that some of the disputed posts were deleted after police released a statement clarifying that the post-mortem examination had not confirmed sexual assault.
The action against the Twitter accounts followed a separate case filed the day before against Udit Raj, a former Member of Parliament and Congress party leader, who was booked on similar charges of disseminating misinformation through his own social media posts about the incident. The police framing suggests a pattern of opposition figures and their supporters using the case to attack the government.
Kulkarni's statement emphasized that the post-mortem findings ruled out both sexual assault and physical injuries consistent with rape on the bodies of the two girls. He also addressed the claim about the funeral rites, saying that neither police nor local administration had attempted to conduct the ceremonies. Instead, he explained, the family had informed authorities that relatives were traveling from Surat and would perform the last rites once they arrived. The police superintendent presented these clarifications as evidence that the social media accounts had knowingly spread false narratives about the case.
The crackdown reflects a broader pattern of law enforcement action against social media users in Uttar Pradesh under the Yogi Adityanath administration, particularly in cases that generate public attention and criticism of state authorities. The filing of FIRs against multiple accounts simultaneously suggests police view the posts as part of a coordinated campaign rather than isolated statements. What remains unresolved is how the two girls died, what circumstances led to their bodies being found in the fields, and whether the disputes over the facts of the case will be clarified through the police investigation or through independent examination of the evidence.
Notable Quotes
All those who tried to flare up tension and disturb harmony through different social media platforms will not be let off. We have lodged an FIR and will conduct a probe into the tweets.— Anand Kulkarni, Superintendent of Police, Unnao
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