A video of a fight between two families in Maharastra's Ahmednagar has gone viral with a communal angle that a Hindu family was beaten up by Muslims for playing religious songs on loudspeakers. BOOM contacted Ahmednagar police who denied the communal angle and said that the fight was due to personal reasons and there is no religious angle to the same.
Ahmednagar Police said that the incident is from November 26, 2020 when two women from Tofkhana had a violent fight. "Two women from the Inamdar family and Kale-Darandale family had a fight where one of them hit the other. This enraged the family members and the next day youngsters from the Inamdar family came armed with sticks and beat up women from the Kale-Darandale family," said Assistant Police Inspector Kiran Surse, Ahmednagar Police. Surse also confirmed that the viral video is from the same incident and though the families are Hindu and Muslim, there is no religious angle to the fight.
The clip which shows armed men hitting women outside a house, is being shared with the caption, "Women beaten by goons in A.Nagar Surya Nagar for performing aarti om speakers in temple. These women did not get corporation from @NagarPolice Tofkhana and these women were only arrested. Justice needed. @NCWIndia @OfficeofUT ji @neelamgorhe tai. Women Safety."
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Another caption says the women were beaten by "minority community" because they were performing Ganpati pooja, who objected to the same.
"Ganpati Pooja, regularly performed by local women at Tapovan in Ahmednagar was bothering a few boys from minority community who then took objection & inhumanely beat the women & asked them to stop performing aarti. Is #Maharashtra slowly going the West Bengal way?"
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BOOM also received the viral clip on our WhatsApp helpline number (7700906111) inquiring about it.
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FACT-CHECK
The caption claimed that the incident happened in Surya Nagar in Ahmednagar and using this we ran a search and found that the area falls under the jurisdiction of Tofkhana Police Station.
We reached out to Kiran Surse, assistant police inspector, Tofkhana Police Station, who denied any communal angle and also said that the claim that the women were beaten up because they performing a Ganpati pooja or playing religious songs is false. "The incident happened in the morning, and they (women) were brushing their teeth. There was no aarti or puja going on at the time of the fight," Surse added and that there is a temple, 500 meters away from where the fight happened.
The police have since the fight arrested people from both sides - seven members (four men and three women) of the Inamdar family and nine (eight women and one man) members of the Kale-Darandale family.
"The situation is fine and we have increased security in the area," added API Surse.
Ahmednagar Police also quote tweeted the viral clip dismissing any communal angle to the incident.
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