Propagandist Dhruv Rathee recently targeted actor Janhvi Kapoor just hours after she posted an Instagram story condemning the horrific lynching of a Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, in Bangladesh.
On Thursday night, Janhvi Kapoor shared a strongly worded Instagram story describing the killing in Bangladesh as “barbaric” and urging people to confront communal violence and extremism without selective outrage.
Referring to the public lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, she emphasised that such incidents were not isolated and warned against moral hypocrisy that ignores violence against “our own brothers and sisters” while amplifying causes elsewhere in the world.
Kapoor’s statement came amid growing outrage over the brutal killing of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu man who was beaten to death by an Islamist mob in Mymensingh’s Bhaluka Upazila of Bangladesh on the night of 18th December.
According to reports, the mob accused Das of blasphemy, assaulted him mercilessly, tied his body to a tree and later set it on fire. Videos of the incident, which went viral on social media, captured the mob chanting Islamic slogans while recording the murder on their mobile phones.
Bangladesh police have confirmed the incident. Duty Officer Ripon Mia of the Bhaluka Police Station stated that the Muslim mob attacked Das around 9 pm after alleging that he made derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad. His body was later sent to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital mortuary for postmortem examination.
Within hours of Janhvi Kapoor’s post drawing attention to the lynching, Dhruv Rathee shared an Instagram story promoting a YouTube video titled “Dark Side of Beauty,” featuring Kapoor’s image prominently in the thumbnail.
The timing of the post drew sharp reactions on social media, with several users accusing Rathee of attempting to divert attention from her condemnation of Islamist violence against Hindus by circulating unrelated content targeting her.
The development unfolded against the backdrop of escalating violence against Hindus in Bangladesh following the removal of Sheikh Hasina from power and her subsequent flight from the country. Attacks have intensified after the death of anti-India and jihadi political activist Sharif Osman Hadi, who was shot on December 12 and died on December 18 while undergoing treatment in Singapore.
Since then, extremist mobs have targeted media outlets, the Indian embassy, diplomats and minority Hindu communities.
While Janhvi Kapoor’s post explicitly called out communal brutality and urged accountability regardless of geography or ideology, Dhruv Rathee has not addressed the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das directly.
