Several unrelated and old videos are doing the rounds on social media with a claim that migrant workers from Bihar have been attacked in Tamil Nadu. We have found at least four such videos that are being used to push this narrative online.
Following the viral trend, Sylendra Babu, Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu even issued a clarification on Twitter on 2 March stating that the videos are "false". He spoke about two specific videos in his statement.
The online misinformation also led to heated scenes in the Bihar Assembly with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav reiterating that Tamil Nadu DGP has refuted the reports. However, following the uproar, the Bihar government has reportedly decided to send a team of officials to Tamil Nadu to verify the claims, which have led to panic.
But why this sudden spike in misinformation?: The reason behind a spike in this could be a video from February which showed a Tamil-speaking man assaulting three migrant workers on a moving train and accusing them of "taking away the jobs of the local people". English news channel NDTV had reported on the video on 17 February.
Now, let's take a look at some of the videos that are being circulated and also see where are they actually from.
VIDEO 1: IT'S FROM HYDERABAD, NOT TAMIL NADU
On 2 March, BJP Bihar, shared a graphic and used a screenshot of a video to claim that while "12 migrant workers were killed in Tamil Nadu," Tejashwi Yadav was celebrating the birthday of MK Stalin, chief minister of the state.
The tweet had garnered over 1,69,700 views at the time of writing this story.
The same graphic was retweeted by Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey and shared by several others.
But what has been shared as a video of an attack on migrant workers is actually from Jiyaguda in Hyderabad.
On conducting a reverse image search, we came across an article on a portal called 'South First', published on 23 January. The article mentioned that a 29-year-old Jangam Sainath was hacked to death in full public view.
Using this information, we found another report on Deccan Chronicle, which mentioned that the police had arrested three persons – Akash, Tillu, and Sonu – in connection with the murder. The report added that the police suspected that Sainath was allegedly killed due to an illicit relationship.
VIDEO 2: VIDEO FROM JODHPUR
Another video, which shows a group of men, violently attacking and stabbing another man, was also shared to push this claim. Hindi news channel, ABP News, used screenshot from this video in its story.
This video is massively viral and has been shard with different captions. We have refrained from adding any links due to the violent nature of the video.
Fact: It shows two men attacking and stabbing a lawyer named Jugraj Chauhan in Jodhpur. The accused were identified as Anil Chauhan and Mukesh Chauhan. As per reports, the incident happened due to a long-standing dispute.
The Quint's WebQoof had earlier debunked this video when it was viral with a communal claim, misidentifying the accused as Muslims and the victim as a priest.
VIDEO 3: OLD INCIDENT FROM KARNATAKA
Another gruesome video, which shows four people attacking a man with an axe on a street, is also being shared.
(We have refrained from adding any links due to the disturbing nature of the video.)
The Quint's WebQoof team had earlier debunked another claim with this video in 2021.
Fact: We had found that the video showed the murder of one Anwar Shaikh by a group of axe-wielding attackers in Haveri, Karnataka. Shaikh was reportedly a gangster in the area who had a number of charges against him, including extortion and murder.
Haveri's Superintendent of Police (SP) Hanumant Rai had told us that the assailants and the victim had some personal enmity and all four people have been arrested.
VIDEO 4: VIDEO FROM COIMBATORE
A Facebook page 'A24 News' shared two videos, of which one has been debunked above. The other one shows a group of men attacking another one. The caption mentioned, "तमिलनाडु में बिहारी मजदूरों पर हों रहें अत्याचार पर क्यों मौन हैं बिहार की सरकार."
[Translation: Why is the Bihar government quiet on the issue of Bihar migrants being attacked in Tamil Nadu?]
Fact: However, this video is from Coimbatore and shows a five-member gang attacking a 24-year-old murder accused, Gokul, near the combined court complex.
According to a report in The Times of India, Gokul had come to the court in connection with a murder case and was attacked when he was at a tea shop. HIs friend, Manoj, too, was assaulted but he managed to escape with injuries.
A video of the attack was carried by several news channels.
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