Old video of a dispute between two Muslim families in Mirzapur is shared with a communal narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 7, 2022
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of a Muslim man brutally assaulting Hindu women using iron rods in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur. This post claims that a man named Abdul had assaulted a Hindu family in the neighbourhood for asking him not to throw garbage in front of their home. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a Muslim man brutally assaulting Hindu women in Mirzapur.
Fact: The incident shared in the post had taken place in January 2022 at the Kotwali Katra area in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Both the accused and the victims of this incident belong to the Muslim community. Mirzapur Police through a tweet confirmed this information on 06 April 2022. There is no communal narrative in this incident. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, it is found that several local news channels have published the same video in January 2022. They can be seen here, here, and here. These local news channels reported that a few youngsters in the Kotwali Katra area had assaulted women with iron rods following a minor dispute over garbage. These news channels nowhere reported that the victim women belongs to a Hindu family.
When this video went viral with a communal narrative, the ‘Mirzapur Official’ media channel had contacted Mirzapur Police for clarification regarding this incident. Mirzapur Additional SP Sanjay Kumar confirmed that the incident had taken place on 16 January 2022 and clarified that both the accused and the victims of this incident belong to the Muslim community.  He mentioned that the prime accused is Salman and said that the dispute was raised over throwing garbage in front of a neighbourhood family. Sanjay Kumar emphasised that two cases have been filed regarding this incident in the Kotwali Katra police station. Mirzapur Police tweeted the same clarification video on their Twitter handle.
#थाना_को0कटरा की पुलिस चौकी लालडिग्गी अन्तर्गत मोहल्ला बालकुंजल गिरी में दिनांकः 16.01.2022 को एक ही समुदाय के दो पक्षो के मध्य हुई मारपीट की घटना के वॉयरल हो रहे वीडियों के सम्बन्ध में #Addl_SP_City की बाइट।#UPPolice #Mzp pic.twitter.com/nUUcNSN4Fd
We found one of the FIR copies of this incident on the ‘UPCOP’ mobile application. In the FIR, the complainant’s name is mentioned as Nasreen Begum and the accused names are mentioned as Salman, Anjum, Tahwar Paitar, Bitti Tamanna, and Urf Ayesha. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post shows a dispute between two Muslim families.
To sum it up, an old video of a dispute between two Muslim families in Mirzapur is shared now with a communal narrative.