A video, around 21 seconds in length, is viral on social media, purporting to show a group of Hindu men thrash a Muslim man named Nazrul Islam in West Bengal's Murshidabad.
Watch it here: [Trigger Warning: Footage Contains Use of Expletives]
https://vimeo.com/1181847406?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
Murshidabad, which is a Muslim-majority district, has been in the news recently for seeing large scale voter-deletions in the contentious SIR (Special Intensive Revision) process. Several users have shared the video claiming that it is proof that Hindus in Murshidabad have "woken up", and are taking the rival party's goons to task.
Deepak Kumar, who regularly amplifies communal misinformation on X, shared the video. He claimed that the man being beaten up was a Muslim, identifying him as one Nazrul Islam. According to the claim, Islam had intimidated local Hindus by threatening them to refrain from voting for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) or face expulsion from the state, following which he was mercilessly beaten up. (Archive)
Pro-BJP X handle @JaipurDialogues, which is run by retired IAS officer Sanjay Dixit, also shared the video with the viral claims. The post was later deleted. (Archive)
The video was also shared by X user @ocjain4, who shares communal misinformation on a regular basis. (Archive)
Other users who shared it include @Jatassociation, @Jai_Shree_Ram_G, @CommanMan777589. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)
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Fact Check
To verify the authenticity of the claim, we broke down the viral clip into keyframes. A reverse image search on one such frame led us to this news report by Navbharat Times, published on June 17, 2022.
According to this report, protests against the Agneepath Scheme, which was launched in June 2022, had turned violent in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, resulting in stone pelting, arson, and disruption of normal businesses. Shopkeepers in the locality had retorted by beating up several protesters and handing them over to the police.
On looking closely at the video we found a noticeboard in the background which says "Telephone Colony: Municipal Corporation, Varanasi." This proves that the clip is not from Murshidabad, as the claim alleges.
The viral segment of the clip can also be located in this YouTube video, starting from the 4:37 timestamp. It was uploaded by Varanasi-based news agency "Live VNS" on June 17, 2022.
Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search on X and came across this post by (@reporternimisha), on the same day of the reported chaos in Varanasi, that is, June 17, 2022.
The caption reads: "Clash broke out in Varanasi between locals and troublemakers; youths who came to vandalize and force shops to shut down were beaten by locals; Youths had gone to close shops in protest against the Agneepath Scheme. Locals chased and beat the unruly youths Incident near Kashi Vidyapeeth in Sigra police station area."
We found another X post from the same day, by (@PushpendraKrT), which reported on the chaos in Varanasi, including the clip which is now misleadingly viral.
To sum up, the viral video, shared with the claim that it shows local Hindus beat up a Muslim man in West Bengal's Murshidabad, is actually from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, during the Agneepath protest in 2022. The claims linking it to Bengal are, therefore, false.
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