Old, Unrelated Images From Yemen Linked to Dalit Man’s Assault in Rajasthan

We traced the visuals back to an incident in October 2020 from Yemen’s Al Mahwit Governorate.

Fact-Check: These images are from Yemen and date back to 2020.

(Source: The Quint) 

A post showing pictures of a person with deep whip-like scars on his back and legs is being shared on social media.

The post accompanies a screenshot of a news report by Hindi news channel India TV, headlined, "When a Dalit youth touched a water pot, the brick kiln owner beat him with a belt and left him half dead, demanded Rs 1.5 lakh from his family." (translated from Hindi)

The claim: The provided text states that a Dalit youth suffered severe abuse after drinking water from a vessel. It also claimed that his assailants subsequently requested ₹1.5 lakh from his relatives for his freedom.

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.

• The pictures featured in the post are from an unrelated incident in Yemen from 2020, concerning child mistreatment by a father.

• The news report in the viral posts is from an incident in Rajasthan where a dalit youth was beaten. However, the visuals are not linked to it.

What we found: We ran a Google reverse image search on the image and were led to an article by a news website called Yemen Now. It was published in 2020 with the headline, "The father in Al Mahwait beat a child." (translated from Arabic to English.)

• The report recognised the boy as Shamikh Rashid Al-Qahili, a teenage boy hailing from Al Mahwit.

• The child endured severe physical abuse from his father, Rashid Muhammad Al-Qahili, who restrained him and struck him with cables and whips. The father was subsequently arrested, and the child received medical attention.

• We found similar reports by websites like Crater Sky and Alnabba-alyemeni confirming the incident from 2020.

Dalit youth beaten in Rajasthan: The report from India TV carried a blurred-out visuals of a man who was assaulted. However, they did not match the boy shown in the viral pictures.

• Another report by NDTV Rajasthan highlighted the video, affirming that the circulating images were not connected to the Rajasthan incident.

• In January, a Dalit driver named Chiman Lal Meghwal was allegedly assaulted by a brick kiln proprietor in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu, when the former drank water from a water pot.

• The driver claimed he was abducted, taken to Haryana, and assaulted there. Later, his family was also asked for a ransom of ₹1.5 lakh for his release.

• The local police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) in this matter.

Additionally, Team WebQoof fact-checked the same image in 2021 when it went viral with a different claim. You can read the story here.

Conclusion: Old and unrelated images of an instance in Yemen has been linked to a dalit man's assault in Rajasthan in January.

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