A graphic video of a man being thrashed by a mob is being shared on social media with the claim that it shows a Muslim man being thrashed by Hindutva extremists in Delhi, as part of a communal attack.
BOOM found this claim to be false; as per our investigation, the man in the video was thrashed by people after being accused of stalking and harassing a 13-year-old girl in Delhi's Shahdara area. Delhi Police officials confirmed to us that the violence was indeed a response to the allegations of stalking, and that a POCSO case has been registered against the individual being beaten.
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Twitter user CJ Werleman shared the video, which showed a man being thrashed by a man, with a group of onlookers standing by. The video did not contain any audio. The caption with the video stated, "Muslim man assaulted by mob of Hindu extremists in Delhi, yesterday."
Click here to view the above tweet.
The post portrays the incident as a communal attack against Muslims by Hindutva extremists.
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Fact-Check
Looking through the responses to the post by Werleman, BOOM found several users contesting the claims of communal angle to the attack. The responses suggested that the violence was a result of alleged stalking of a minor by the man being beaten.
Some users also included a tweet by ANI, detailing this incident.
We found another video of the same injured man, posted by Congress leader Alka Lamba. In this video, the man is seen sitting in front of Shahdara Police Station, while being surrounded by people.
BOOM reached out to R Sathiyasundaram, DCP of Shahdara Police, who confirmed to us that the violence in the video shared by Werleman was indeed a result of accusation of stalking and harassment.
He provided us the following statement:
"On 07/05/2022 a complaint from a 13year old minor girl was received at PS MS park in which she stated that one unknown person was stalking her for last few days while she was going to take her tuition classes. On 7/05/22 she informed her parents & took them along. While the parents were waiting little away & watching, alleged man approached the girl at about 4.30 pm near Nathu Colony Chowk, and misbehaved with minor victim. While he tried to leave from there victim's parents and public persons nabbed him & beat him. Beat officer reached at the spot and rescued him."
He added, "Identity of accused established as Irfan Khan, age 37 years, from nearby locality, married and having 3 kids doing private accountancy job. Accordingly as per the complaint, a case u/s 354D IPC and 12 POCSO Act has been registered. Accused was arrested and produced before the Hon'ble court and remanded to judicial custody. Case is under investigation."
Additional reporting by Nivedita Niranjankumar.