Fact Check: Video of women buried alive in Madhya Pradesh is not caste atrocity

An X user shared the video with the caption: “Height of cruelty..! Two Dalit women buried alive by Upper Caste goons in Madhya Pradesh. (sic)” (Archive)

A same video can be seen here. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading.

A reverse search revealed a report by India TV titled ‘Rewa: Two women buried by goons in gravel during protest against road construction on their land | VIDEO.’ The report had screengrabs from the viral video.

According to the report, two women in Rewa’s Hinauta village were buried when gravel was dumped on them while they were protesting unauthorised road construction on their leased land. The report said that the two women were rescued and sent for treatment.

A keyword search led to a report by NDTV on the incident titled ‘Truck Dumps Gravel On 2 Women, Tries To Bury Them Alive In Madhya Pradesh’

The report stated that the women, Mamta Pandey and Asha Pandey, were buried up to their waist and neck in gravel. They claimed the land was leased and opposed the construction. Senior police officer Vivek Lal was quoted saying, “The women were protesting and the dumper overturned the gravel, burying them. Both parties have a dispute over family land.”

We found another report by The Hindu titled “Two women partially buried under construction material while protesting”. The report also confirmed that the women were involved in a land dispute with relatives.

Cops confirm no caste angle

Additionally, we found a video posted on X by ANI showing Rewa additional superintendent of police Vivek Lal stating that there is a family land dispute behind the incident. In the video, the police confirmed that ‘it was a family land dispute; one side wanted to build a road and was laying down gravel (translated from Hindi).’ The police in the video stated that a case of attempt to murder has been registered under section 110 of the BNS, with three accused, and one arrest has been made.

The reports only mentioned a land dispute as the cause of the action which confirmed that the incident is not a caste atrocity. The reports don’t mention any police investigation or the case being filed about crimes against marginalised caste groups.

The surname of the victims and the accused as per reports is Pandey and no reports stated that the victims are Dalits. No valid information supports the issue being caste-related; reports indicate it is a land dispute among relatives.

Hence, the claim is misleading.