Fact-check: Did Bababhai Pathan from Ahmednagar ‘adopt’ two ‘orphan’ girls and married them off as per Hindu rituals?

Baba Bhai Pathan embracing his 'adopted' nieces, images via Twitter

Recently, social media websites were flooded with a heart-warming story of a Muslim man ‘adopting’ two girls and later marrying them off as per Hindu rituals.

According to the several reports in the media, a Muslim man, Bababhai Pathan, who hails from Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, ‘adopted’ two orphan sisters and organised their wedding from his own expenses in accordance with the Hindu rituals.

https://twitter.com/aarifshaah/status/1297451867824218114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The same story was picked up by an IPS officer Dipanshu Kabra, posting a tweet lavishing praises on Bababhai Pathan for ‘adopting’ two orphan girls and marrying them off as per Hindu traditions. Lauding Pathan’s gesture, Kabra hailed the Muslim man as a totem of unity and humanity and asserted that it is due to people like him that the faith and trust of crores of people on humanity remains resolute.

https://twitter.com/ipskabra/status/1297560217941499905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The brides’ are not orphans as claimed in the media

However, contrary to the media reports claiming that the Muslim man ‘adopted’ the orphan girls and in a benevolent gesture and married them off according to the Hindu customs, the brides were neither adopted, nor orphans and their mother is still alive.

According to popular Marathi blogger and columnist Sameer Gaikwad, Bababhai Pathan was a rakhi brother of the bride’s mother and he performed the rituals of a maternal uncle at the wedding of the two daughters of the Bhusare family in Bodhegaon of Ahmednagar. The mother of the brides ties rakhi to Bababhai Pathan every year because she doesn’t have a biological brother.

After it came to the fore that the girls were not orphans ‘adopted’ by Bababhai Pathan as being bandied about in the media and the weddings were organised by the mother of the girls, IPS Kabra corrected himself by issuing a clarification tweet on the incident.

https://twitter.com/ipskabra/status/1297774639502876672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Clarifying assertions made in his previous tweet, IPS Kabra said that he was updated from media sources that the two sisters were not orphans and that their mother ties rakhi to Bababhai Pathan every year as she doesn’t have a real brother.

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia