A 14-second clip showing a man riding a motorcycle harassing an elderly, physically challenged Muslim man in a tricycle has gone viral. In the clip, the biker can be seen kicking the man's cycle and snatching his skull cap, prompting criticism among social media users. Many speculate that the incident took place in Jharkhand.
Premium X user @iamharunkhan shared the above-mentioned video on February 26 and tagged the Jharkhand police. The post received more than 270,000 views and has been reshared over 3,800 times. (Archive)
Another premium X user, @Ramraajya, shared the clip on the same day with a caption evoking sympathy for the old man. "So much hatred. 💔 This old man was also handicapped. The viral video on social media is being said to be from Jharkhand. @JharkhandPolice Please check the video and take action," it read in Hindi. The post was reshared over 2,000 times. (Archive)
Several others on X too shared the video with similar claims. Below are a few instances:
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Fact Check
To verify the authenticity of the video, we broke it down into several key frames. A reverse image search of these key frames led us to a YouTube short posted by a channel named @MuklesurBhaijaan on January 31. We found that the short, which was longer than the viral video, continues from the point where the viral clip ended. The continued bit shows a second biker stepping in and hitting the first biker who harassed the Muslim man. The second biker also takes back the skull cap and hands it back to the elderly person.
This short was also linked to an 11-minute long YouTube vlog titled "Random Rider Challenged Me & He Crushed! "|| gari ko mara | bike rider help Kiya | helping moto vlog". In the vlog, published on January 24, one can see the same old man in the beginning and the biker who troubled him in a blue helmet who harassed him.
The viral clip appears at the 1:29-minute mark of the vlog where a motorcycle rider in a blue helmet can be seen snatching the old man's skull cap. At the 5:56-minute mark of the video, the biker wearing the blue helmet and the elderly man appear again. We noticed that the bike's number plate indicated that the vehicle is registered in the state of Jharkhand but the individuals in the video could be heard speaking to each other in Bengali. At the 1:00- and 6:51-minute marks, one can see other bikes and a car with a West Bengal-registered number plate.
We went through other content posted by this YouTube channel and found a short featuring the same elderly man. However, here he can be seen standing alongside a bicycle. We found him in more videos by the channel, where he is on his feet, indicating that he isn't physically challenged. Most of these videos show him in a distraught state and the bikers coming to his rescue. (Examples 1 and 2)
To be sure, that these were just scenarios being acted out, we checked the channel's description, which says that it posts riding vlogs as well as scripted videos.
Alt News also tracked the Facebook profile linked to the YouTube channel, in which the location is Birbhum, a district in West Bengal sharing a border with Jharkhand. That could explain why one of the bikes in the video has a Jharkhand-registered number plate.
Thus, the above findings make it clear that the viral video is old and scripted.
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