Video of Naked Men Falsely Shared as 'Dalits Assaulted' Near Ganga River in UP

This video is from Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh and shows the locals thrashing drunken youths.

Fact-check: A video showing youths being thrashed by locals for bathing naked in Madhya Pradesh's Maheshwar, is falsely shared as Dalits assaulted while bathing in the Ganga.

(Photo: The Quint)

[TRIGGER WARNING: INAPPROPRIATE VISUALS]

A video showing a mob beating several naked men is going viral on social media to claim that it shows Dalits being assaulted after they were caught bathing in Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh.

An archive of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This claim is false.

• The video shows locals of Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, thrashing youths who were caught bathing naked at Ahilya Ghat on 10 September 2024.

• It does not carry any angle linked to caste-based violence, as claimed.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on Google using some of the keyframes from the viral video and this led us to a video shared by Dhamnod Samachar YouTube channel.

• This was shared on 12 September 2024 and the description read in Hindi, “Video of youths bathing naked in Narmada in Maheshwar went viral on social media, and youths and devotees beat them fiercely.”

• Taking a cue, we performed a relevant keyword search on Google and this led us to a report shared by Dainik Bhaskar and Azad Hinsdstan Live.

• It noted that on 10 September, a group of young men were found bathing naked in the Narmada River at Ahilya Ghat situated in Maheshwar.

• It added that this invited an aggressive reaction from the nearby locals who dragged the men out of the river, and thrashed them.

We then reached out to the Maheshwar police station, where officials clarified that the viral claim is false. They added that the locals beat up these men who were drunk and found bathing naked at Ahilya Ghat while also causing nuisance.

Conclusion: A video showing youths being thrashed by locals for bathing naked in Madhya Pradesh's Maheshwar, is falsely shared as Dalits assaulted while bathing in the Ganga.

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