A twitter handle @Imamofpeace tweeted in the morning of September 2, “Islamic Extremists in India beating up a poor and elderly Indian beggar. I truly wish this Islamist criminal is arrested soon. @narendramodi.”
A video attached with this tweet showed a youth beating up an elderly man. Within six hours, it was retweeted over 3,300 times. @Imamofpeace has now deleted the tweet without any clarification and long after the damage was done. It’s archived version can be accessed here.
Bollywood actor Koena Mitra was among those who retweeted the video, however, with the additional claim that the man who was beaten up was a “Naga Sadhu”. She too has retracted the tweet without any clarification (archive).
Squint Neon and Postcard Telugu also jumped the gun to declare that a Naga Sadhu was thrashed by members of the Muslim community in Uttarakhand. Squint Neon has deleted the tweet without an explanation.
The video was also circulated by Anand Srivastava at 5:25 am on 2 September. Srivastava is the founder of a website called Bharat Herald that regularly posts pro-BJP articles. His tweet was retweeted by author Rajiv Malhotra and Shefali Vaidya.
Editor of MyNation Abhijit Majumdar circulated the video as well with the identical claim that the man assaulted was a Naga Sadhu.
There were several other individual users who shared the video on social media.
The earliest instance Alt News found was by a Twitter handle called @s_rajesh007 on 30 August at 3:31 am. The user posted a Facebook link with the tweet, which is now deleted.
Not a Naga Sadhu. Not Beaten up by Muslim Youth
Alt News contacted the SHO of Patel Nagar, Dehradun who told us that the incident was being circulated with a false narrative on social media.
“The man who was beaten up is not a Naga sadhu, but a beggar. He is married and has six children. He went to a house to beg for food and molested the woman who brought him tea and biscuits.”
The SHO further said that he was beaten up by the woman’s brother, who was not Muslim but belonged to a Hindu family. An FIR has been registered against the beggar who was allegedly heavily intoxicated when he molested the woman. He is now in police custody.
The official twitter handle of Dehradun police also put out a statement clarifying that claims floating on social media are baseless. “The man is an imposter against whom a complaint has been filed for molesting a woman while being intoxicated.”
The police tweeted another clarification on the misleading allegations and informed that the man who was beaten up impersonated a beggar for alms. “Sushil Nath is an addict who has been involved in such cases in the past as well. On 24.08.2018, he entered a house and molested a woman, following which he was beaten up by the woman’s brother Shubham and other locals.”
A false narrative was manufactured by the usual suspects to support a propaganda against members of the Muslim community. Actor Koena Mitra has been called out in the past for tweeting a fake love jihad rate card. Similarly, Squint Neon falsely blamed Muslims for perpetrating violence during Kanwar Yatra. When provocative information is circulated by familiar handles, it needs to be treated with suspicion and crosschecked with facts.
(This was first published on AltNews and has been republished with permission.)
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