A viral video showing a man brutally attacking a person sitting on a sofa and talking on a mobile phone with a sickle is being widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that the video depicts a Muslim man brutally attacking a doctor named Kailash Rathi in Nashik, Maharashtra. This article aims to fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: A Muslim man brutally attacked a doctor in Nashik, Maharashtra.
Fact: According to news reports and the FIR filed by the police, the accused in this incident is a Hindu named Rajendra More, who attacked the doctor over a financial dispute. There is no communal angle to the incident. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search on the internet, which led us to several news reports (here & here). According to these reports, the incident took place in Panchavati, Nashik, on 23 February 2024. One Dr. Kailash Rathi was attacked by a man with a sickle over a monetary dispute, and later, he was admitted to the intensive care unit of a local hospital. Furthermore, these reports quoted a police official who stated that the accused was the husband of Dr. Rathi’s former employee. The accused man’s wife had allegedly misappropriated funds of around Rs. 6 lakh when she was an employee at the hospital, after which she was let go and reinstated again a few years later. “She again took Rs 12 lakh from the doctor but refused to pay it back,” the official said.
Subsequently, we also came across a news report by the Times of India. According to this report, Dr. Rathi was attacked around 9:30 pm on 23 February 2024 at his clinic in Dindori Naka, and the police arrested the assailant, Rajendra More, on 24 February 2024. It also included a statement from the Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Karnik, who mentioned that the attack resulted from a personal dispute and that More would be interrogated for further information.
Furthermore, we visited the Maharashtra Police website and checked the FIR (0109/2024) filed related to this incident, which was lodged by Reena Rathi, the wife of Dr. Kailash Rathi. Rajendra More and Rohini More were accused in the FIR, which also mentioned details of money transactions. Based on all this information, it is evident that the man who attacked Dr. Kailash Rathi does not belong to the Muslim religion and there is no communal angle to the incident.
To sum it up, the video depicting an attack on a doctor in Nashik is being shared with a false communal claim.
