A disturbing video of a man and a woman bleeding profusely and appealing that an FIR be filed against the accused, is viral with a false communal angle that they are Hindus assaulted by Muslims who tried to rape the woman. Uttar Pradesh police told BOOM that the accused and victims were from the same community and denied a communal angle to the incident.
The caption with the video reads, 'This incident was recorded yesterday at Itaunja police station. Around four to five #peacefuls had come to rape his sister and when he protested, the brother-sister duo was mercilessly thrashed. #Awaken Hindus else your end is sure. And the cops could have helped the injured by admitting them to a hospital but they didn't. '
(Hindi: #लखनऊ यह घटना #इंटोजा थाना क्षेत्र की कल की है, #शांतिप्रीय_कोम के #इस्लाम,और चार पांच लोग और, इसकी बहन का रेप करने आए इसने रेप नही करने दिया तो इसकी बहन और दोनों को बुरी तरह पीटा, #जागो_हिंदू_जागो आप लोगों का अंत निश्चित है, और इस घटना में क्या पुलिस वाले इन्हें अस्पताल पहुंचा सकते थे, पर दुर्भाग्य देखिए हमारे देश के शासन का। )
The 45-second-long video has a conversation in Hindi between the male victim and the cops. The victim says, "Is there no justice here, sir?" to which a man replies, "You can get your medical checkup done here." The man replies in an aggressive tone, "First write a report." To this, the other man says, "You should bring a written report." Towards the end of the video the man names two people Islam and Yonus - accusing them of attacking them.
The video is graphic in nature so viewers' discretion is advised.
You can watch the video here and its archived version can be accessed here.
Fact Check
The caption of the video claimed that the incident was recorded in Itaunja, a town in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. BOOM got in touch with Lucknow Police Public Relation Officer who told us that the incident was a result of a brawl between members of the same community.
"We have tweeted about this incident from our official Twitter handle. You will get all the details there. The victims seen in the video also belong to the Muslim community and their names are Sharukh and Shabnam," said the spokesperson, Lucknow Police department.
The official added that there was still no clarity on the reason behind the brawl.
The official Twitter handle of the UP police had also replied to a user who tweeted the video, with the details of the case.
The tweet says 'Youngsters playing in front of their houses in the jurisdiction of Itaunja police station had a tiff following which two groups (both from the Muslim community) entered into a brawl. The video related to the same incident shows Shahrukh and Shabnam who had come to Itaunja police station at 1.25 am to register a case. A team was immediately constituted to nab the accused. The investigation has been handed over to CO BKT.'
The tweet makes it clear that the accused and the victims were both from the Muslim community.
The department has also tweeted that action has been initiated against a constable for treating the victims in an 'inhuman' manner.
The tweet reads 'SSP-LKO Kalanidhi Naithani was briefed by the circle officer BKT about the incident and action has been initiated against a constable Rahul (2016 batch) for behaving in an 'inhuman' way with the victims. All the juniors have been directed to behave humanely with any injured person and all the station house officers are directed to brief their juniors properly'.
In another tweet, Lucknow police later announced that all the accused involved in the incident have been arrested.
The tweet reads 'SHO Itaunja was directed by SSP-LKO Kalanidhi Naithani to take immediate action in the incident following which police has arrested four accused named in the case: 1. Usman 2. Shakil 3. Younus and 4. Islam.