A video depicting a man being flogged has gone viral on social media. The clip shows a crowd watching the man is thrashed by several others. Many social media users have shared the footage with a communal claim, stating that the man was assaulted for allegedly converting from Hinduism to Christianity.
A user on X (formerly Twitter) named The Saviour shared the viral video with the caption, "HINDUS ATTACK A MAN FOR CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY." The tweet garnered close to 6 Lakh views and 4,200 retweets. (Archive)
A parody account of popular YouTuber, Dhruv Rathee (Parody) (@dhruvrahtee), shared the viral video on X with the caption, "Is leaving Hinduism and converting into other religion crime in this country? This man was brutally beaten by mobs just because he left Hindusim and converted himself into Christian." The video received over 499,100 views, 8,500 likes and 4,600 retweets. (Archive)
The viral video was also shared on YouTube. A sentence in Bengali translated into English as "Hindus attack a man for converting to Christianity" was superimposed on the YouTube video.
Fact Check
We broke down the viral video into key-frames using Invid software and then reverse-searched one of the images on Google. This led us to a 2022 tweet by X user @SurajKrBauddh, who shared the viral clip with the caption, "Begari Naresh, a SC boy was dragged from his house and mercilessly thrashed with sticks in Sangareddy, Telangana. Such a callous act. We demand strict action against the goons. Stop casteism." This shows that the incident depicted in the viral video is at least 2-year old.
The Mooknayak reported on this incident in July 2022. The report titled, "Telangana: Video of Dalit youth being beaten up goes viral, case registered" featured a screengrab of the viral clip. According to this report, Naresh is a Dalit man from Sangareddy district in Telangana. He was allegedly having an affair with a woman belonging to a different community. Naresh was allegedly assaulted by the woman's family members and relatives.
The report also stated that the victim suffered serious injuries and was hospitalised in Zaheerabad. The police had also registered a case against the woman's family members.
We also found a 2022 report by Telangana Today on the incident. It said that the victim was allegedly having an extra-marital affair with a married woman. The report says, "In a video that was widely circulated on social media on Monday, the family members of the woman were reportedly caught when she was in a compromising situation with the said man. They caught hold of him and dragged him out of the house. While the entire village was watching helplessly, the family members of the woman were seen beating him brutally with sticks. Police have registered a case against 11 persons."
To sum up, social media users have given a communal spin to a viral video depicting a man being brutally beaten with sticks. Users have claimed that a Hindu mob assaulted the man for converting to Christianity. However, our fact check revealed that the viral video is from 2022. A Dalit man was thrashed for allegedly being in an extra-marital affair with a married woman. There is no communal angle to the incident.
Abira Das is an intern at Alt News.
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