A disturbing video of an aged sadhu being thrashed by his co-passengers on board a train in Tamil Nadu, is viral with claims that he was attacked by a group of Christians for his religious identity.
The viral tweets further claim that the Christians were up in arms against the Hindu saint when he tried to sit in a compartment that was predominantly occupied by the former.
The video shows a group of men attacking the aged passenger, who appears to be a Hindu monk. Passengers can be seen pulling his beard and pushing him, as he resists the attack. The former can be heard abusing the sadhu in Tamil. BOOM reached out to the Southern Railway Public Relations Officer, B Guganesan, who confirmed that the incident happened on board the Nagercoil - Coimbatore passenger train earlier this week.
The video, viewed more than 1.7 lakh times at the time of writing this article, has been captioned as, "This is Horrible! On this train an old Hindu Saint is being beaten by Christians because he got into a compartment which was predominantly Christians & they did not want this Hindu man to sit with them. If I was on that train I swear I would have went berserk on those Christians!"
Warning: Disturbing content. Click here to view the archive of the tweet.
This is Horrible! On this train an old Hindu Saint is being beaten by Christians because he got into a compartment which was predominantly Christians & they did not want this Hindu man to sit with them. If I was on that train I swear I would have went berserk on those Christians! pic.twitter.com/5gLywPSg0w
— Renee Lynn (@Voice_For_India) March 15, 2020
The same video was tweeted with a similar narrative in Tamil by another user.
1/ #நாகர்கோயிலில் இருந்து செல்லும் ரயிலில் #கிறிஸ்தவர்கள் நிறையபேர் இருந்தபெட்டியில்.. ஒரு #இந்துசாமியார் உட்கார்ந்து இருந்ததால்..அவரை #அடித்து வெளியேற்றியுள்ளனர்...😢😰 #மத_வெறி_மிருகங்கள்!!😠😠😠😠
— உமாநாதன்®🚩 (@umanathanv) March 13, 2020
நடுநிலை பேசும் இந்துவே நாளை உனக்கும் இதுதான் கதி!! pic.twitter.com/pAwCGcLzkr
FACT CHECK
BOOM was able to ascertain that the video is from Tamil Nadu, as passengers can be heard speaking and reprimanding in Tamil.
Multiple replies suggested that the incident was an alleged case of molestation.
நானும் ஹிந்து தான் ..நானும் கன்னியாகுரியில் பிறந்தவன் தான். இந்த சாமியார் காமாக்கொடூரன் 11. வயது குழந்தையிடம் தவறாக நடக்க முயற்சி பண்ணினான்..பொதுமக்கள் நன்றாக கவனித்து போலீசிடம் ஒப்படைத்தார்கள்.. ஜாதி கலவரத்தை உண்டு பண்ண முயற்சிக்கிறே.. இந்த மாதிரி தவறான பதிவுகளை தவிர்க்கவும்..
— SUBIN SP.🌺🌺🌺✈✈✈🔥🔥🔥 (@Subinsp04Sp) March 14, 2020
We reached out to B Guganesan, the Chief PRO of Southern Railway, who confirmed that the incident happened on board the Nagercoil-Coimbatore passenger train earlier this week. According to Guganesan, the co-passengers beat up a septuagenarian sadhu when he was caught molesting an eleven-year old in the compartment.
He however added that the miscreant was not identified as no complaint was lodged about the incident with the Railway Police Force (RPF). The same was corroborated by a senior official from the RPF of the Trivandrum section.
We also found the same video which was uploaded to Facebook by one Shekinah Santhosh who stated that the incident happened in the Nagercoil-Coimbatore Passenger train where co-passengers thrashed the sadhu for misbehaving with a girl. According to the post, the sadhu was alighted at the Dindigul station.
BOOM could not independently verify if the passengers travelling were predominantly Christians.