Video From Thane Goes Viral With a False Communal Spin

The woman can be seen fighting with security guards and slapping a few people.

Fact-Check | The woman in the viral video, trying to snatch the photo frame, does not belong to the Muslim community.

(Photo: The Quint)

A video showing a woman arguing with security guards while holding a photo frame has gone viral with a claim that a Muslim woman in Maharashtra's Thane area tried to snatch the photo of Bharat Mata (Mother India) and stopped people from hoisting the national flag of India on Republic Day.

Later on in the video, the woman gets violent with people around and ends up slapping a few.

However, we found that while the incident did take place in Thane near Mumbai, the person trying to snatch the photo frame didn't belong to the Muslim community. Uttam Sonawane, the senior police inspector, Kapurbawadi station in Thane confirmed to us that the incident was not communal in nature.

CLAIM

The viral video was shared with a caption that read, "A Muslim lady in Maharashtra blocking flag hoisting n trying to snatch bharat Mata photo. Look at the liberty we have given them and unexplainable, stupid tolerance."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The same claim was shared by several users on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some can be found here and here.

We also got the claim as a query on our WhatsApp tipline.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We used the InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension to extract keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search on some of them. In the search results, we found a tweet with the viral video that had a reply from Thane City Police's official Twitter handle.

The handle said that an NC (complaint for non-cognisable offences) has been registered against this women in Kapurbawdi police station.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

We then contacted Uttam Sonawane, a senior police inspector in Kapurbawdi police station, who confirmed that the incident was not communal in nature. He added that people were trying to falsely communalise the incident on social media.

"The name of the girl is Kanika Sekhri and she is a Punjabi Hindu. She lives in the same building and had a fight with the security guards on Republic Day. The viral video shows that argument. We have filed an NC in the case," Sonawane said.

We then conducted a keyword search and found news reports talking about the incident. According to reports, the video was from Lodha Amara in Thane's Kolshet Industrial Area.

The woman in the video picked a fight with the people who were celebrating Republic Day in the building. None of the reports said anything about the person's religion.

The Quint contacted a local journalist who covered the incident and they confirmed it to us that the girl didn't belong to the Muslim community.

Clearly, the video of an argument that took place in Maharashtra's Thane area was given a communal colour by social media users.

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