An old video of a Dalit youngster being beaten by a group of upper caste men in Vadodara, Gujarat is being shared with the false claim that it shows a recent mob attack on a Christian in India.
BOOM spoke to Vadodara Rural Police who denied the claim stating that the incident is from December 2022 and the man being beaten in the video is a Dalit and not a Christian.
The 41 seconds video was tweeted by the Twitter handle Shirin Khan (@Shirinkhan0) with the caption, "Brutal attack on a Christian by a Hindu mob in India, A country where mob lynchings are on the rise."
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The same video was also earlier tweeted by another Twitter handle '@SAHR_Watch' with the same misleading claim. The caption read, "Rising trend of mob lynching in India captured on camera as a Hindu mob brutally attacks a Christian. Concerns over communal violence and religious intolerance escalate, the international community must take notice of this situation. #MobLynching #India #ReligiousIntolerance"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral is from December 2022 when a Dalit youth was beaten by a group of upper caste men in Vadodara, Gujarat.
On breaking the video into key-frames and running a reverse image search we found several news reports on the incident. The search results showed that the video dates back to December 2022 and is an incident from Vadodara where a Dalit youth was beaten by seven men belonging to Rajput and OBC community.
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The accused had broadcast the assault live on social media in which they are heard using casteist slurs while beating the victim. The incident occurred on December 11, 2022 at Bhayli village under the Vadodara taluka police station area.
According to the FIR in the case registered at the Vadodara taluka police station, the victim Alpesh Parmar, a Dalit youth from Bhayli village had alleged that he was thrashed by seven people on December 11, 2022, when he was sitting with a girl near Sevasi Canal Road.
“We have detained five of the seven accused and they will soon be formally arrested. From our preliminary findings, it seems that the victim did not know the accused. There seems to be a case of stalking where the victim made some objectionable remark at a girl on social media,” Rohan Anand, Vadodara Superintendent of police had told Hindustan Times on December 23, 2022. The four accused were identified as Mahipal Chavda, Tushar Solanki, Piyush Rathod and Pranav Solanki.
The same video was also tweeted by Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani on December 22, 2022, who had termed the incident as "an attempt to lynch a Dalit youth in full public view."
BOOM reached out to Vadodara taluka police who rubbished the viral claim stating that the victim is not a Christian and that the incident is from December 2022.
"All seven were accused were arrested at that time, the victim name is Alpesh Parmar and he is a Dalit and not a Christian. The fight started because of a love affair gone wrong. The case is going on the court now," said ASI Niruben, Vadodara taluka police station told BOOM.