Video of People Thrashing a Man in Gujarat Shared With Communal Spin
Vadodara Rural SP refuted the viral claim and confirmed that the incident had no communal angle.
Fact-Check | The claim stating that the video shows several Hindu men beating a Christian man is false.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
A video that shows several people brutally thrashing another person with sticks and belts is being shared on social media platforms with a claim that a Christian man was beaten by Hindu men.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
The clip had recorded more than 77,000 views at the time of writing this report. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
Are these claims true?: No, the incident dates back to December 2022 when several people thrashed a man named Alpesh Parmar in Gujarat's Vadodara. Parmar alleged that he was beaten because he belonged to a lower caste.
The Quint reached out to Vadodara Rural Superintendent of Police (SP) Rohan Anand who confirmed that the incident had no communal angle and said it happened on some issue related to a woman.
He confirmed that the accused and the victim belonged to the Hindu community.
What did the First Information report (FIR) say?: We accessed a copy of the FIR filed on 21 December 2022 at the Vadodara taluka police station.
The victim in his complaint said that he was sitting with a girl near Sevasi Canal Road on 11 December 2022, when he was attacked by seven men. He said that the accused thrashed him because he belonged to a lower caste.
The accused threatened Parmar to not inform the police about the incident. He further said that after the video went viral, his family members and friends urged him to file a police complaint.
The FIR was registered under the Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), among others, of the Indian Penal Code.
It was also filed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
What did the police say?: Speaking to The Quint, SP Rohan Anand said, "legal action has been taken against the accused."
He said that the accused and the victim belonged to the Hindu community.
He shared the names of five accused who were arrested - Mahipal Chavda, Tushar Parmar Solanki, Piyush Rathod, Pranav Solanki, and one Ajju.
News reports: A report in The Indian Express dated 23 December 2022 said that five people were detained for 'assaulting' a Dalit youth in Vadodara.
It said the accused told the police that the woman allegedly asked them to come to the location of the incident. They added that the victim was reportedly intimidating the woman.
The report was published on 23 December 2022.
Conclusion: A video of seven people beating a man in Gujarat's Vadodara is being shared with a false communal angle.
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