Drunk Waiter Mistaken as Child-Lifter, Thrashed by Crowd in Punjab

Jalandhar police told The Quint that the video shows a drunk waiter who was mistaken to be a child lifter.

CLAIM

Amid rumours of child-lifting, another video has emerged where a crowd surrounding a man can be seen accusing him of attempting to kidnap a child.

In the video, the crowd can be seen questioning a man in a red T-shirt about his plan. A person can be heard narrating in Punjabi how the “accused” tried to kidnap an infant nearby.

The video is being circulated on various social media platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp.

The video is being circulated with the claim "सावधान पूरे हिन्दुस्तान में रोहिंग्या की 2000 लोगो की टीम आयी है जो बच्चों को उठा के ले जा रही है कोई बेचता है कोई बलि के लिये ले जाता है खुद देखो सुनो ओर ज्यादा से ज्यादा इसे फैलाओ|"

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WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

The man in the video is a drunk waiter who was mistaken for a child-lifter after he tried to shake hands with the child.

WHAT WE FOUND

We broke down the video into key frames using video verification platform InVid and found a post on a website named 'instagyou' which claimed that a woman in Punjab’s Tagore Nagar caught a thief and handed him over to the police.”

The video was circulated with the same claim on Facebook as well.

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Man Heckled in MP as Child Lifting Rumours Go Viral Again

After searching with keywords ‘Tina Punjab Baccha Chor’, we found a Dainik Bhaskar report according to which, mob in Jalandhar's Sant Nagar area thrashed a drunk waiter after mistaking him for a child-lifter.

However, there were no photos or videos to link the incident with the video.

The Quint spoke to Sub Inspector Rajinder of Jalandhar’s division five police station, and he confirmed that the video is of the same incident and the man was not a child-lifter.

“He was a waiter who was drunk at the time the crowd gathered him and started beating him up on child-lifting suspicion after he tried to shake hands with a kid passing by him.”

Rajinder, Sub Inspector, Jalandhar Police Station Division 5

Rumours of child-lifting cases are at rise this year and at least five people have lost their lives this year as a consequence.

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