A video is being shared on social media claiming it is the visuals of a Christian being brutally assaulted by a Hindu mob in India. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a Hindu mob brutally assaulting a Christian in India.
Fact: The post shared an old video of a mob assaulting a Dalit youth in Vadodara, Gujarat. Alpesh Parmar from Bhayli village in Vadodara district was thrashed by a group of youth belonging to an upper caste for allegedly making unpleasant comments on their social media accounts. The incident took place in December 2022 and the victim was not a Christian. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video shared in the post, a video with similar visuals was found published by the ‘IANS TV’ news channel on 23 December 2022. This news channel described it as the visuals of a Dalit youth being brutally thrashed by a mob in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Reporting the complete details of the incident, several news websites published articles in December 2022. They can be seen here, here and here. According to the reports, a group of seven persons belonging to an upper caste in Vadodara assaulted 24-year-old Alpesh Parmar with a leather belt and sticks for allegedly making unpleasant comments on their social media accounts. The incident reportedly took place on 11 December 2022.
Gujarat MLA and Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch leader Jignesh Mevani tweeted the video describing it as the visuals of a Dalit youth being lynched publicly in Vadodara.
The FIR filed by the victim states-“The seven accused picked up an argument with the complainant on the pretext that he had made unpleasant comments on their social media accounts… Soon, the accused began thrashing the complainant and making casteist abuses. The complainant has suffered injuries on his arms, legs, back as well as his head. The accused also threatened to kill the complainant if he approached the police”. In the FIR, the victim described himself as a member of the SC community and case is filed under different sections of ‘The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989’.
To sum it up, an old video of a mob assaulting a Dalit youth in Vadodara is shared now with a communal narrative.
