Video of Man Attacking Women in UP's Mirzapur Shared With False Communal Spin

The video is not recent and both the parties belong to the same community.

The video is being shared with a communal claim saying that a Muslim man named Abdul attacked a woman belonging to a Hindu family.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video which shows a man attacking some people with an iron rod is being shared on social media with a communal claim stating that a Muslim man "attacked women from the Hindu community" in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur after they refused to throw garbage.

The video has been shared by several verified Twitter profiles, further amplifying the false claim.

However, we found that the claim is false. The video is from January 2022 and both – the accused and the victim – belong to the Muslim community.

Speaking to The Quint, the complainant, too, confirmed that the incident had no communal angle to it and it was being shared with a false claim.

CLAIM

The video was shared by Hindi news channel Zee Hindustan's journalist named Tushar Srivastava with the caption in Hindi that read, ''मिर्जापुर के कटरा थाना क्षेत्र में अब्दुल ने कचरा फेंकने को मना करने पर हिंदू परिवार की महिलाओं के ऊपर जानलेवा हमला कर दिया. वीडियो में साफ तौर पर देखा जा सकता है कि किस निर्दयता से अब्दुल महिलाओं की जान लेने पर आमादा है अब क्यों न अब्दुल को आतंकी कहा जाए इसी को तो आतंक कहते है."

(Translation: In Mirzapur, under the jurisdiction of Katra police, Abdul attacked women of the Hindu community, when they asked him to not throw garbage. It can be seen how he is trying to attack them. Now why shouldn't Abdul be called a terrorist, this is called terror.)

The tweet has now been deleted but before it went down, it had over two lakh views.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Uttar Pradesh spokesperson and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Umrao, who has often been called out for peddling disinformation, quote-tweeted and shared it with the same communal spin.

An archive of the tweet can be seen here. 

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

We also received a query on our WhatsApp tipline as well.

Several social media users have shared the video on Facebook and Twitter and the archived links can be seen here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We found a reply by Mirzapur police on the tweet by Srivastava from 6 April, adding a tweet from its handle posted on 17 January.

The tweet read that three accused were arrested in connection with the case.

The tweet from 17 January. 

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

Next, we looked with keywords and found news reports about the incident.

A report by online news portal ETV Bharat from 17 January read that a mother and her daughter were injured when some goons had attacked them in Takia Danu Shah area under the jurisdiction limits of Katra Kotwali police station in Mirzapur.

The report quoted the Additional Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjay Kumar Verma who said that the three people were booked under Section 151 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) (to prevent the commission of cognizable offences).

The story was published on 17 January.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

We also found another news report published in Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar.

Further, speaking to us, a police official from Katra Kotwali police station, said that the the person who filed the complaint is Nasreen Begum while the accused is named Salman, also known as 'Baba'.

The Quint's WebQoof team also accessed the FIR copy with the help of a local reporter, Brijendra Dubey.

The FIR showed the complainant's name as Nasreen Begum and the accused as Salman, Anjum, Taswur Penter, Tamanna, and Ayesha.

We also got in touch with Nasreen Begum, and she, too, clarified that the incident had no communal angle to it, and everyone involved in the incident belong to the same community.

Mirzapur Additional SP also released a video statement on 6 April and said that the incident is from 16 January and two FIRs have been registered in the case, adding an investigation will be done on those spreading misinformation.

Clearly, a video which showed a fight over a civic issue is being shared on social media with a communal claim.

(With inputs from Quint Hindi)

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