A disturbing video of a man being beaten up at a busy street in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh for allegedly molesting a woman on a bus, is viral with a misleading claim on Twitter.
The 39-second clip shows three men brutally beating up the man as onlookers try to intervene.
The video was tweeted with the caption: "We do not know where this video is from, but it is very painful. A Muslim is being beaten up by a mob. What kind of India did you make Narendra Modi?”
(Original text in Hindi: ये तो नहीं पता कहा का है ये वीडियो पर है बहुत दर्द नाक, एक मुस्लिम को भीड़ का द्वारा मारा जा रहा है, ये जेसा भारत बना दिया है, @narendramodi)
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
The same has been shared on Facebook with a similar narrative.
Fact Check A reply on the video suggested that the incident happened in Meerut, where the family members of a woman beat up an alleged molester.
BOOM then looked up a landmark Sara Hotel that can be seen in the video.
We found that the same hotel is located in Meerut.
We then reached out to Akhilesh N Singh, Additional SP, Meerut who confirmed that the video is from the area.
Singh denied any communal angle to the incident. We were directed to Chakrapani Tripathi, Circle Officer, Brahmpuri, who corroborated the same.
“The incident happened in Mawana Tehsil of Meerut when a woman informed her brothers about a man who molested her on the bus she was travelling in," Tripathi told BOOM. However, he was reluctant to share the name of the accused.
"Her brothers came to the spot near Sara Hotel and beat him up."
Tripathi further added, "An FIR was registered by the woman and he was arrested on the basis of that. There is no religious angle involved in this incident, as nothing was mentioned in the FIR registered. We have initiated an inquiry and are also trying to identify the men who beat him up and created a ruckus.” The same was reported by Amar Ujala and ANI.
Screenshot of the report in Amar Ujala
Meerut video used to share another communal narrative
Meanwhile, the same video is being shared on Facebook to falsely claim that it documents the attack on Mohammed Qari Owais, who was allegedly beaten up over a row over headphones at the Old Delhi Railway station. The video has been joined with an examination video of Owais’ dead body by his family after the completion of a post mortem of his body.
The entire clip has been captioned as, “Qari Owais was beaten to death over a trivial matter in the Old Delhi Railway Station yesterday. I am not able to write anything more than this.”
BOOM ran the second part of the video where Owais’ body is being examined by his kin through Harendra Kumar Singh, Additional DCP, North Delhi. Singh said, “We had handed over the body of Owais to his family members in Shamli. Before they burial, they examined his injuries. However, their comments in the video do not corroborate the post mortem report.”
Owais was allegedly attacked over a fight that broke out between him and two shopkeepers in Old Delhi Railway station regarding a pair of headphones. He later succumbed to his injuries.
