Video of Man Kicking Goddess Saraswati Portrait Peddled With False Communal Claim

The video of a man kicking goddess Saraswati's portrait in a school in Chhotaudepur, Gujarat is being shared with the false claim that the man is a Muslim. BOOM found that the man in the video is a Hindu, and he is a visiting teacher at the same school.

On viewing the 37-second clip, it is not clear what sparked the man's outrage. The clip only shows him aggressively kicking the portrait of Goddess Saraswati and throwing it on the ground.

The video is being shared on Facebook and Twitter in Kannada with the caption, "Our God should not let this Jihadi who kicked Saraswati's leg alone.. Fearmongers who say "Sir tan se juda" if they talk about their religion.. God himself will make his leg tan se juda.."

(Original text in Kannada: "ನಮ್ಮ ದೇವರು ಸರಸ್ವತಿಯನ್ನು ಕಾಲಿನಿಂದ ಒದ್ದ ಈ ಜಿಹಾದಿಯನ್ನು ಸುಮ್ನೆ ಬಿಡಬಾರದು.. ತಮ್ಮ ಧರ್ಮದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾತಾಡಿದರೆ "ಸರ್ ತನ್ ಸೇ ಜುದಾ" ಮಾಡುವ ಭಯಉತ್ಪಾದಕರು.. ಆ ದೇವರೇ ಇವನ ಕಾಲನ್ನು ತನ್ ಸೇ ಜುದಾ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ..")

Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.

Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.

Click here to view.

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the man in the video is not Muslim and the communal claim attached to this video is completely false.

We spoke to the SP of Chhotaudepur, Dharmendra Sharma, who refuted the communal claim. "The man is not Muslim. His name is Yogesh Rathwa. He is a Hindu Adivasi residing in the same area," Sharma told BOOM. "We have also registered an offence against him," he added.

Taking a cue from the Gujarati conversation between the accused and the person shooting the video, we used Gujarati keywords to look for the video on YouTube.

Here, we found a report by ABP Asmita that had described the incident in detail.

According to the report, the man in the video is Yogesh Rathwa, a visiting teacher at the Gelesar Primary School located in Nasvadi, Chhotaudepur, a district in Gujarat. The incident took place on December 28, 2022 when Rathwa, in an intoxicated state, began kicking the portrait of Saraswati violently. A video of this went viral a few days later. Rathwa has since been detained by the police following a complaint filed by one of the school's administrators.

Another report by Zee 24 Kalaak also mentions the incident and names the accused as Yogesh Rathwa. A translated screenshot of the report can be seen below:

Since the reports mention the full name of the accused which is Yogesh Rathwa, we were able to conclude that he is not Muslim and the communal claims circulating online are false.

(Additional reporting by Mohammad Salman).