An old CCTV footage from 2016 showing a mob pelting stones at houses and raising slogans in Kerala has surfaced with false communal claims that it shows people from the Muslim community attacking houses owned by Hindus in the state.
BOOM found that the video is from 2016 when nearly 50 houses in Kerala's Nadapuram area were attacked by an angry mob following the murder of the IUML member named Aslam.
The video is being shared with the caption, "Muslim's throwing stones on Hindu bungalows in Kerala threatening them to vacate, same like Kashmir model. This has become common in Kerala. Rahul, Nitish, Akhilesh love them the most because they think they are peace loving, lovable, innocent minorities who tortured by Hindus."
Click here to view the tweet.
The same video is also circulating on Facebook with a similar false claim.
Click here to view the post. BOOM also received the video on its Helpline number (7700906588) for verification.
Fact Check
BOOM broke the viral video into its keyframes and ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes; we found a news bulletin by Manorama News uploaded on its official YouTube channel on August 15, 2016 with visuals from the same viral video.
The video was uploaded with the caption, "More than 50 houses attacked in Nadapuram".
The news bulletin stated that around 50 houses which mostly belonged to Congress, BJP and CPM sympathisers were targeted and attacked in Nadapuram at that time. The miscreants covered their faces while carrying out the attack. The police collected CCTV footage of the attack and registered cases against 50 people in connection with the incident.
Further, a Deccan Chronicle report from August 14, 2016, stated that the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leaders condemned the murder of Aslam allegedly by CPM activists. The article says, "Muhammed Aslam, one of the 17 acquitted IUML workers in the C.K. Shibin murder case of January last year, was hacked to death at Thuneri, Nadapuram, on Friday evening."
An excerpt from a report published by The Times of India on August 18, 2016, reads, "According to officials with revenue department, 47 houses were attacked by the assailants on Saturday night and Sunday following the murder of Aslam on Friday. Six houses suffered major damages while the remaining houses suffered minor damages in stone pelting. A total of 40 houses were attacked in Thuneri and seven houses in Nadapuram. A few vehicles including one car were also torched by the assailants."
The report also mentioned that the revenue officials inspected the houses and estimated damages of worth Rs 12 lakhs due to the attack.
On August 28, 2016, Mathrubhumi reported that the police arrested the main murder accused Ramesh, a CPM activist, who hatched the conspiracy and had identified Aslam for the killers.
