A video has gone viral on social media, which purportedly shows a Christian man being thrashed by a Hindu mob. Those who shared the video expressed their worry about India’s communal unity. The video was posted on Twitter by a handle called South Asian Human Rights Watch with the following caption:
“Rising trend of mob lynching in India captured on camera as a Hindu mob brutally attacks a Christian. Concerns over communal violence and religious intolerance escalate, the international community must take notice of this situation.” (archive)
Rising trend of mob lynching in India captured on camera as a Hindu mob brutally attacks a Christian. Concerns over communal violence and religious intolerance escalate, the international community must take notice of this situation.#MobLynching #India #ReligiousIntolerance pic.twitter.com/LxyK3Q6di0
— South Asian Human Rights Watch (@SAHR_Watch) March 16, 2023
Similar claims were made in a tweet by Shirin Khan. She wrote: “Brutal attack on a Christian by a Hindu mob in India. A country where mob lynchings are on the rise.’
Brutal attack on a Christian by a Hindu mob in India,
A country where mob lynchings are on the rise.
pic.twitter.com/YytPlHGhXE— Shirin Khan (@Shirinkhan0) March 17, 2023
The video is also viral on Facebook with similar claims.
Fact Check
Alt News broke the video down into its key-frames and reverse-searched one of them. This lead us to an Indian Express article dated December 23, 2022, that included a screengrab of the video in question. The article was headlined ‘Five detained for ‘assaulting’ Dalit youth in Vadodara’.
The report says that a Dalit youth, identified as Alpesh Parmar (Vankar), was assaulted by seven men from Vadodara. Police had identified and detained five of them. The incident took place on Sevasi Canal Road in Vadodara.
We also noted that Congress Legislator and advocate for Dalits’ rights Jignesh Mevani posted this video on Twitter and urged law enforcement authorities to stop these kinds of hate crimes.
गुजरात में गुंडाराज !
ऊना कांड के वक्त मोदी जी ने कहा था- “मारना है तो मुझे मारो, मेरे दलित भाईयो को नहीं” लेकिन प्रशासन द्वारा यह सुनिश्चित ही नहीं किया गया की दुबारा इस प्रकार की घटनाएं न घटे। नतीजा-कल वडोदरा जिले में दलित युवक की सरेआम लिंचिंग करने की कोशिश हुई। @dgpgujarat pic.twitter.com/k4LxL87zJN
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) December 22, 2022
Several other media outlets such as The Times of India and Deccan Herald had covered the incident. TOI quoted Vadodara (Rural) SP Rohan Anand as saying, “The girl, with whom he (Parmar) was standing (at the time of the assault), has said that he was stalking her online. On December 11, she was doing Instagram Live from a spot and Parmar learnt about her location following which he reached there and started talking to her. The accused arrived there within minutes and started thrashing Parmar.”
Divya Bhaskar and BBC Gujarati also reported on the incident along the same lines.
To sum up, a Dalit man from Vadodara was beaten up by a group of men over the former allegedly stalking a woman online. A video of the incident was falsely shared as a Christian man being assaulted by Hindus with social media users expressing concern about communal harmony in India.
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