Fact Check: Viral video is from Ambala, not Meerut, and shared with false claim

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A video is going viral in which some people can be seen beating a naked man. Some social media users are claiming that the video was shot in Meerut’s Valley Bazaar, where “a Muslim youth was beaten up for teasing Hindu women”. Vishvas News investigated the video and found that an old video  of Ambala in Haryana, is being shared with a false claim and a communal angle.

Claim:

Facebook user ‘Sanatan Hindu’ posted the video on February 8, 2023, and wrote, “A Muslim was caught teasing Hindu women in Meerut Valley market, see his condition. The courage of the women of Hindu religion in the country Jai Shri Ram”. Twitter user @ABHISHEK77381 also tweeted the video with the same claim.

(Links include violence and nudity, hence not shared here)

Investigation:

We first looked at the tweet by @ABHISHEK77381 to fact-check the viral claim. We found that the Meerut police had also replied to the tweet saying that this video was shot in Ambala and not Meerut. The police further said that there is no communal angle in this matter and both parties belonged to the same community. The police also warned of registering an FIR for posting such misleading posts.

प्रस्तुत प्रकरण अंबाला से संबंधित है।2020 का मामला है।दोनों पक्ष एक ही समुदाय के हैं।भ्रामक न्यूज पोस्ट करने पर आपके विरूद्ध FIR दर्ज की जा रही है।

— MEERUT POLICE (@meerutpolice) February 8, 2023

Further, we did an open search on Google about this video with related keywords. We found a news report about this matter published in Amar Ujala on January 21, 2020. As per the news article, the video was shot at Halwai Bazar Jain Further, we did an open search on Google about this video with related keywords, and we found a news report in Amar Ujala on January 21, 2020. As per the news article, the video was shot at Halwai Bazar, Jain Bazar Chowk, Ambala, where a woman caught a youth harassing three minors. The accused was identified as Pawan alias Sonu. The report added that the victim’s mother and other women stripped the young man and thrashed him. He was handed over to the police and a case registered under the POCSO Act.

Dainik Jagran also published a report on the same matter on January 20, 2020. This report said that people caught a young man molesting female l students in Jain Market, Ambala. The relatives of the girls and other people thrashed him. The news report further said the man had been harassing the girls for many days.

This video had gone viral earlier as well with a communal claim. At that time, too, Vishvas  News investigated it. In a conversation with Vishvas News, Sunita Dhaka, in charge of Ambala Women’s Police Station, had said that the name of the accused is Pawan Kumar and he does not belong to the particular community mentioned in the viral post. We spoke to Dainik Jagran’s crime reporter Deepak in Ambala. He said, “The viral video is from Ambala. This is about three years old, and the accused was a Hindu.”

We scannWe scanned the profile of the Facebook user ‘Sanatan Hindu’who shared the video with a false claim. According to the investigation, he lives in Delhi and is inspired by a religious ideology.

Conclusion: The video of women thrashing a naked man is from Ambala, from January 2020. Neither was the accused Muslim nor does the video have any connection with Meerut.

Tags

• Communal Fake
• communal post
• Fact Check
• fake news
• meerut fake video