Old video of assault on tribal woman shared with communal twist
A disturbing video of a group of men brutally beating up a woman is being shared on social media. Social media users claim that the video shows a Dalit woman being beaten up by Hindutva extremists.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 2 Feb 2023 5:17 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A disturbing video of a group of men brutally beating up a woman is being shared on social media. Social media users claim that the video shows a Dalit woman being beaten up by Hindutva extremists.
“A Dalit girl was mercilessly beaten up by members of the Hindutva extremist organization...India is the only country in the world in which Hindu extremists commits gross violations of human rights, especially against Muslims,” reads the English translation of the tweet.
(Note: We are refraining from providing link to the video because of its disturbing nature.)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim of caste discrimination is misleading.
On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found the video in a report by NDTV from 4 July 2021. According to the report, the incident is from Madhya Pradesh. It said two tribal women (cousins) were beaten up and tortured by their family members in public view because they were talking to their maternal cousins.
According to the Times of India report of 5 July 2021, which also carried a still from the video, the incident took place in Peepalwa village at Tanda in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. It also said that two sisters, aged 19 and 20, were brutally assaulted by their kin because they talked to their cousins over the phone.
India Today also reported the incident, stating two sisters from a tribal community were beaten brutally by their family members for talking to their maternal uncle’s sons on the phone. Quoting Tanda police station in-charge Vijay Vaskale, it also said that the indecent had taken place on 22 June 2021 in Peepalwa village; however, the viral video reached the police on 25 June 2022.
Finally, we also came across a video statement from the police on the incident tweeted by the Free Press Journal on July 2021. In the video, Tanda police station in-charge Vijay Vaskale said that a case was registered against seven family members for assaulting two women in their family.
Thus, it is clear that the viral video is not related to caste discrimination or any communal angle. Hence, we conclude that the claim is misleading.
