Fact Check: Hindu vendor in West Bengal assaulted for selling in Muslim area? No, here are the facts
A video has been circulating on social media, claiming it shows a Hindu vendor being assaulted for setting up a vegetable cart in a Muslim area in West Bengal.
By - Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows a Hindu boy who had set up his vegetable cart in a Muslim area was tied to a pole and beaten up in West Bengal.
Fact:The claim is false. The video depicts the aftermath of the theft incident from a mosque in Laksam Municipality, Cumilla District, Bangladesh.
(Content Warning: This article features visuals of violence that some readers may find disturbing. Discretion is advised.)
Hyderabad: A disturbing video showing a boy tied to a pole and being mercilessly caned while onlookers gather to watch the alleged public punishment is circulating on social media.
The video is being shared with the claim that the boy belongs to the Hindu community and was assaulted for setting up his vegetable cart in a Muslim area in West Bengal.
An X user shared the video and wrote, “This video is not from Bangladesh or Pakistan but from our West Bengal, where Mamata Banerjee’s government is in power... This boy is dying because of this because this is a Muslim-majority area and it’s their market; this Hindu boy had set up his vegetable cart here... Angry religious fundamentalist people tied up the Hindu boy and beat him, saying, ‘You infidels have no place here...’.” (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video is from Bangladesh.
Source of the video
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes led us to a Bangladeshi Facebook account that shared the video on October 14. The post claimed it depicted an incident of theft from a mosque.
Another Bangladeshi Facebook account posted a screengrab from the same video on October 14, stating that a motor pump had been stolen from a mosque in Laksam Municipality, Cumilla District, Bangladesh. The person being assaulted is presumed to be the thief.
The videos also feature a motor pump nearby.
Following this lead, we conducted a keyword search on Facebook and found several images of alleged thieves tied to the same pole in the viral video.
These were posted by the Facebook account ‘Laksam TV’ on October 13. The post stated that the thieves were caught by local residents while they were stealing the motor from the Laksam Junction Mosque.
Another video posted by a different Facebook account also showed individuals tied to a pole with a motor lying in front of them. According to the post’s caption, three thieves were apprehended while attempting to steal a motor from the Laksam Railway Junction Mosque.
Where was the video shot?
To confirm the location, we analysed the viral video and observed that the pole features a signboard on the top with Bengali text. There is also a man in the crowd wearing a shirt with Bengali text on the back.
While we could not decipher the text on the signboard, we were able to translate the text on the man’s t-shirt, which identified it as belonging to the Trinayani Youth Association from Cumilla district, Bangladesh.
Using these clues, we were able to geolocate the pole where thieves were tied in the videos using Google Street View.
While we could not verify the religion of the boy in the viral video, we can confirm that the incident occurred in Bangladesh, not West Bengal. Therefore, the claim is false.
