Video Of Rape Accused Beaten By Locals Viral With False Communal Claim

A video of a group of people beating up a man allegedly accused of raping a minor in Delhi is viral with a false communal claim that he is a Muslim named Akram Khan.

The video is being shared with text in Hindi that reads, "(He) was attempting to rape a four-year-old girl in Karol Bagh. He is *Akram Khan* the social media coordinator of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Dinesh Mohaniya. By God's grace, people were able to save the girl in time. The pig was handed over to the police after being beaten.

(Original text in Hindi - करोलबाग चार साल की बच्ची से बलात्कार करने की कोशिश कर रहा था यह नराधम दिल्ली आम आदमी पार्टी के विधायक दिनेश मोहनिया का सोशल मीडिया कॉडिनेटर *अकरम खान* है , वह तो ईश्वर की कृपा हुई कि लोगों ने बच्ची को समय रहते बचा लिया, पिटाई के बाद उस सूअर को पुलिस के हवाले कर दिया)

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FACT CHECK

A reverse image search on a keyframe of the video showed a story published in NDTV on August 31, 2021 about a factory worker arrested for raping a minor in Delhi's Bapa Nagar area.

The report carried a photo of the accused, who was thrashed by the locals and the family members of the minor girl. This photo matched the man getting beaten in the viral video.

Using the details in the NDTV story, we ran a search for 'Minor raped in Bapa Nagar Delhi' and found news reports in India Today, Zee News, Aaj Tak and Times Now about the incident. According to the story published by India Today, the accused was identified as Dipesh a worker at a jeans manufacturing unit in the area and has been arrested by Prasad Nagar police station.

We then reached out a Delhi police official who on the condition of anonymity said, "The claim in the viral video is false. The accused is named Dipesh and is not connected to any political party. He is a daily wage worker who lured the girl into the factory by offering her a chocolate and then raped her." The official added, "There is no commual angle to the incident and the accused has been arrested and booked under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act."