CLAIM
A video of an unruly mob thrashing a man, allegedly a child-lifter, has been circulating on WhatsApp. It shows a shirtless man heckled by the mob, while faint voices in the background can be heard saying “beat him”.
Towards the end of the video, the same crowd thrashes another man.
In the wake of multiple false child-lifting rumours, The Quint received the 1.05 minute long video of the incident for verification of the child-lifting claims made around it.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
The video is not related to child-lifting and is from Madhya Pradesh. The man in the video is thrashed by the crowd for trying to escape after stealing a goat.
WHAT WE FOUND
The video is from Madhya Pradesh's Neemuch town and is from July 2019.
The Quint found that the incident took place after three people tried to escape with a stolen goat.
Locals thrashed three people, who were said to be on the run after allegedly stealing a goat, near the town’s Bhadwa Mata road.
Their bikes were also set on fire by the mob later on.
An FIR had been filed in the case against three people for stealing the goat and against the locals who thrashed them.
Multiple cases of fake news related to child-lifting have emerged this year which claimed many lives across the country. According to a report by IndiaSpend, at least five people were killed till July this year. The rumours, which became prominent last year, have claimed 33 lives in 69 mob attacks since January 2017.
NO END TO CHILD-LIFTING RUMOURS?
Many reports have surfaced recently over fake videos and images being circulated on child-lifting. People have been lynched or attacked on mere suspicion of the crime.
- August 2019: A self-proclaimed godman who goes by the name of ‘Sakhi Baba’ was beaten up by a mob along with two of his disciples on suspicion of child-lifting in MP's Gwalior. Viral pictures showed three wounded men with claims of them being child lifters who had kidnapped children and were operating on them to extract their kidneys.
- August 2019: A similar incident took place in Khilara village in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi. A man's video was circulated with the claim of child kidnapping. According to the police, the person in question was “mentally ill,” and did not kidnap any children.
- August 2019: A man in Uttar Pradesh's Jalaun district was beaten and forced to say on camera that he kidnapped children. In the video, a man can be heard saying that they have caught a boy who had accepted that he abducts children.
- August 2019: A video of a woman went viral accusing her of kidnapping children. According to the police, the woman in the video was "mentally ill". The incident took place in UP's Badagaon.
- July 2019: A man's video from MP's Simrahi had gone viral with the same claim. The police had stated that the man in the video is “mentally challenged” The viral video claimed that a man allegedly by the name of ‘Shamsher’ had kidnapped children.
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