A video of a woman beating a man on the middle of a busy road is being shared on social media with captions falsely claiming that the man had forced the woman to remove a cloth covering her head, thinking her to be a Muslim person wearing a hijab.
BOOM found that the viral claim is false, and the woman had assaulted the man for passing lewd comments at her.
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The viral video shows a woman getting down from a two-wheeler and start hitting a person who is being dragged by his collar and brought to her. The man who is being dragged can be seen wearing a saffron stole. The woman, along with two men, continues beating this person and later he is thrown on the road.
A caption with the Facebook post sharing the viral video reads 'This Sanghi asked a woman to remove cloth covering head, because he thought only Muslim ladies do that. Watch the response from others. Sanghi's are brain washed by Media and Govt'.
The visuals might be disturbing to some. Viewers' discretion is advised.
View the post here.
The video is viral on Twitter with similar caption.
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BOOM also received the video on its helpline number with a verification request.
Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the video and found a newspaper report published in Hindi daily OneIndia on June 15, 2022.
According to the news report, the incident took place at Khurai of Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh. The woman seen in the video had thrashed a man on the road near the Tehsil office because he was passing lewd comments at her.
The accused however escaped before the police could arrive at the spot.
BOOM listened to the video closely. Towards the end of the video, the woman can be heard saying in Hindi 'Be in your limits. Impotent, if you are so masculine...'. The audio beyond this is incomprehensible.
(Hindi: औकात में रह अपनी. नपुंसक कहींको इतने बड़े मर्द हो तो...)
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We also found another report published in Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar which had a longer version of the viral video. In the video shared by Bhaskar, the accused can be seen escaping from the spot.
The Bhaskar report also states that the man was thrashed for harassing the girl. None of the news reports mention anything about a hijab.
Taking cue from the reports, BOOM located a shop near the Tehsil office where the incident took place and contacted them. Speaking to BOOM, a worker from Shrimant Honda dealer at Khurai confirmed that the incident took place near the Tehsil office around a week ago.
"The incident took place close to our shop which is around 300-400 metres from the Tehsil office. Since we were in the showroom, we did not see the brawl but we heard about it. It was an incident related to harassment. We did not hear anything about hijab," the person told BOOM.