An unrelated video from Telangana shared as activist Rangarajan Narasimhan being thrashed by DMK workers in Trichy
A video showing a group thrashing a man even as police stand watching is going viral on social media (here, here, and here). It is being claimed that activist Rangarajan Narasimhan, who filed a case against the DMK government over irregularities in Hindu temples, was attacked by DMK workers at the Trichy court premises. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows activist Rangarajan Narasimhan being attacked by DMK workers at the Trichy court premises over the temple case.
Fact: The video is not related to Rangarajan Narasimhan or the DMK. It actually shows an incident that took place on 30 December 2022 in Kosgi town, Vikarabad district, Telangana, where a man named Balaraju was attacked by a group of Ayyappa devotees. They were staging a protest against the Atheist Society of India president, Bairi Naresh, for making objectionable comments about Ayyappa Swamy. During the protest, Balaraju was mistaken for a supporter of Naresh and was assaulted. He later filed an FIR regarding the attack. On 31 December 2022, the police arrested Bairi Naresh in Warangal. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the authenticity of the claim, we first conducted a keyword search using terms like “Rangarajan Narasimhan DMK goons attack Trichy.” However, this search did not yield any credible news reports or videos, which raised doubts about the claim’s veracity.
We then performed a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video, which led us to multiple media reports (here, here) featuring the same visuals. According to these reports, the incident took place on 30 December 2022 in Kosgi town, Vikarabad district, Telangana. The man injured in the attack was identified as Balaraj. He was assaulted by a group of Ayyappa devotees who were staging a protest near Shivaji Chowk against Bairi Naresh, president of the Atheist Society of India, for allegedly making objectionable remarks about Ayyappa Swamy. Mistaking Balaraj for a member of Naresh’s community and suspecting him of recording the protest, they attacked him. However, police intervened and rescued Balaraj. News reports later clarified that Balaraj had no links to Naresh’s community and had not recorded any videos.
The victim in this attack, Balaraju, also filed an FIR (No. 278/2022) regarding the incident. In his statement, he mentioned that on 30 December 2022, at around 2:00 PM, he was present at Shivaji Chowrasta in Kosgi, where a protest was being held by Ayyappa devotees. During the protest, someone pointed at him and accused him of being an atheist and a follower of Bairi Naresh. As Balaraju tried to leave the place, he was followed, verbally abused with filthy language, and physically attacked.
On 31 December 2022, a day after the incident, the police arrested Bairi Naresh in Warangal.
To sum up, an unrelated video from Telangana is being shared as activist Rangarajan Narasimhan being thrashed by DMK workers in Trichy.