A 2018 video from Jammu's Rajouri district showing a man beat two women, with a stick, has been revived online with a false claim that it shows the condition of Hindu women in Pakistan's Punjab region.
The disturbing 1.40 second clip shows a man hurling abuses and beating the women with a stick, in what appears to be an open ground. The man asks one of the women, "jaegi tu dobaraa" (will you go again?). In response, the women keep pleading for forgiveness "nahi, maafi dede" (no, please forgive us).
BOOM has chosen not to include the video on account of its graphic nature.
The Hindi caption accompanying with the video claims: "Imaam, Kamra, Arfa, Swara. These are Hindu sisters in Pakistan. Please empathise with their pain. If you feel anything, please do express. You have empathised with Rohingya and Bangladeshi Infiltrators. Why such disgust for Hindus?#CAA_NRC_support"
(Translated from Hindi: इमाम , कामरा, अरफ़ा, स्वरा, ये पाकिस्तान में हिंदू बहनें हैं, इन बहनों का दुःख दर्द समझ, आये तो कुछ व्यक्त भी कर देना, रोहिंग्या व बांग्लादेशी घुसपेठियों, से तो बहुत याराना है, हिंदुओं से इतनी घृणा क्यों है ? #CAA_NRC_support)
A second caption in Hindi claims the women were beaten in Pakistan after complaining to the police.
BOOM found that the claims circulating with the video are false as the women seen in the video are Muslims, the incident took place in Jammu, India and not Pakistan and the attacker's name is 'Pawan Kumar alias Pamma'.
The video was also retweeted by Prashant Patel Umrao, a Delhi-based Supreme Court lawyer, who has been called out several times by BOOM for peddling communally motivated misinformation.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here and here.
We searched on Facebook with the same caption and found that the video is circulating on the platform with the same fake claim.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search using a few keyframes from the video. This led us to an article published by Dailyhunt two years ago. Taking clues from the article, we pursued a keywords search and found that the news was reported in June 2018. We also found several tweets including screenshots of the video from that time period.
One such user stated that the incident occurred in Rajouri (Jammu) on June 13, 2018 and the accused had been booked under relevant sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (an alternate code to IPC that was applicable in the state of Jammu and Kashmir).
Since Article 370 was abrogated on August 5, 2019, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has superseded RPC. The tweet can be seen below.
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According to a report published by the Press Trust of India and carried by Business Standard, "Pawan Kumar alias Pamma, a resident of Rajouri, was seen kicking and using a log in the assault on the two women, Sakina Begum (45) and her daughter Abida Kousar (20), in a video which went viral on social media sites on Monday, drawing strong protest from the netizens who demanded stern action against him."
A police officer told PTI, "the women said that they were beaten up by him for using a bathroom but the accused claimed that he acted after the mother-daughter duo allegedly roughed up his son."
We also found a tweet thread by the Police Media Centre Jammu about the incident.
He [Pawan] was booked under various sections of Ranbir Penal Code (applicable in Jammu and Kashmir) including 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 325 (Punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), Press Trust of India reported.
