A video showing a group of men being beaten by police inside a jail cell has been shared on social media (here, here, and here), with claims that eight youths in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, were detained by police on 25 August 2024, for cutting off a cow’s tail and throwing it at a temple. Let’s verify the authenticity of this claim through this article.
Claim: Eight youths in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, were arrested and beaten in jail for cutting off a cow’s tail and throwing it at a temple.
Fact: The video dates back to June 2022, when the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police reportedly detained and assaulted people protesting against controversial remarks made by BJP spokespersons about Prophet Muhammad. The police found no evidence against the detainees, and the local court discharged them, leading to their release on 03 July 2022. The viral video is unrelated to the recent Rajasthan incident, where a cow’s tail was allegedly found inside a temple. Therefore, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to reports from June 2022 (here, here, and here) that match the footage. The reports revealed that the men were allegedly involved in protests that erupted nationwide on 10 June 2022, in response to remarks made by BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal about Prophet Muhammad which confirmed that the incident is not recent.
A Google keyword search led us to an NDTV report published on 04 July 2022, revealing that eight men, who were assaulted in police custody after the June 2022 protests in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, have been cleared of all charges. The police stated there was no evidence against them, and the local court discharged them, allowing them to walk out of jail on 03 July 2022. The report also featured an interview with Mohammed Ali, one of the men seen in the viral video, after his release.
However, no reports suggest that eight men were arrested in the recent incident in Rajasthan, where a cow’s tail was allegedly found inside a temple.
Earlier, the same video went viral with different claims and Factly debunked these claims.
To sum up, an old video from Uttar Pradesh has been falsely shared as depicting Rajasthan police officers beating the accused in the case of throwing a cow’s tail inside a temple in Bhilwara, Rajasthan.
