Fact Check: Man harassed in Mumbai for being Muslim? No, find the truth here
A video showing a man being harassed by a huge mob is going viral on social media with claims that it is from Mumbai.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:Mob harasses a Muslim man for his religious identity in Mira Road, Mumbai.
Fact:False. The man was held by locals for desecrating temple premises in Hyderabad on January 11.
Hyderabad: A video showing a young man wearing a skull cap surrounded by a group of people and allegedly being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” is going viral on social media. Users claim that the incident took place in Mumbai’s Mira Road.
Sharing the video on Instagram, one user wrote, “Crowd: ‘Jai Shri Ram! Jai Shri Ram!’ ‘Hey! Say Jai Shri Ram!’ Person: ‘Say Jai Shri Ram!’ This video is reportedly from Mira Road, Mumbai, where a Muslim boy was beaten based on his religious identity and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram! #Delhi.” (translated from Hindi) (Archive)
Posts making similar claims can be found here and here. (Archive 1, and Archive 2)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows a man held by locals for desecrating Kattamaisamma temple premises in Hyderabad.
Using reverse image search of the viral video keyframes we found the same clip shared by the NDTV in a video report uploaded to YouTube on January 11. According to this report, the video shows a mob surrounding a man who was caught defecating inside the Kattamaisamma temple in Hyderabad of Telangana.
The same video was shared by The Siasat Daily on YouTube the same day as part of a video report.
Using keyword searches we found reports published by India Today, India TV and Times of India regarding the incident. The reports state that on January 10 night, 26-year-old Altaf, son of Alla Bakash from Hugeri, Bidar in Karnataka, entered the Kattamaisamma Temple premises at Safilguda. He desecrated the temple premises.
The locals discovered the act and a large mob surrounded him and hit him. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bajrang Dal activists apprehended Altaf and handed him over to police. The police then spoke to the media and said that the man was ‘mentally unsound’.
Times of India report quoted a police officer saying, "We contacted police in Bidar and found there are no criminal cases against him. But there is a document certified by Bidar authorities that he is not mentally sound”.
Therefore, it is clear that the viral video shows a man being surrounded by a mob for allegedly desecrating a temple in Hyderabad. It does not show a Muslim man being harassed in Mumbai’s Mira Road. NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.
