Rajasthan: Person Killed in Dausa Holi Incident Was Not a Muslim

Dausa Police SP confirmed to The Quint that the victim didn't belong to the Muslim community.

Fact-Check: Police confirmed that the incident was not communal in nature.

(Source: The Quint) 

A video showing CCTV footage of a few people beating a man is being shared on social media platforms.

The claim: Those sharing this video have claimed that it shows a Muslim man being beaten up by a 'Hindutva' mob when the former refused to play Holi. The incident has been shared as one from Rajasthan.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false.

• Dausa police and news reports confirmed to The Quint that the accused and victim belonged to the Hindu community.

What we found: We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We came across a post featuring the same viral video, by an Instagram user named, 'reporter_arjunsingh,' from 14 March.

• The post noted that three students beat a young man in a library when he refused to play Holi and let them apply colour in Rajasthan's Dausa.

• The post did not note any communal angle, as claimed in the social media posts.

• With a relevant keyword search, we came across several reports which covered this incident.

• According to the Indian Express, a 25-year-old, Hansraj Meena, was assaulted and later died from his injuries in Dausa after reportedly objecting to Holi colours being applied to him.

• The incident occurred on 12 March in a local library, where Hansraj was preparing for exams, and sustained fatal head injuries during a fight.

• One of the three accused, Bablu Meena, has been arrested, and police have lodged a First Information Report (FIR).

• As per Patrika News, Hansraj's family took him to Lalsot Hospital where the doctors declared him dead. After the incident, the angry family brought the body from the hospital and kept it on the highway and protested for hours continuously.

Police comments: Dausa's Superintendent of Police (SP), Sagar, confirmed to The Quint that the deceased and accused belonged to the same community, that is, Hindu community.

Conclusion: A false claim has been attached to an incident from Rajasthan where a man was killed in a library for refusing to play Holi.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)