A graphic video showing a man lying on the ground covered in blood is going viral on social media, claiming that it shows a migrant worker from Bihar being attacked in Tamil Nadu.
Several misleading videos have been making rounds on social media claiming that migrant workers from Bihar are unsafe in Tamil Nadu.
(Note: We have refrained from adding any archive links due to the distressing nature of the visuals.)
What's the truth?: The video dates back to 17 February, when a fight broke out over parking at a college ground near Doddaballapura’s Doddabelavangala in Bengaluru and resulted in the allegedly killing of two people.
Mallikarjun Baldandi, Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru District (Rural), confirmed to The Quint that this video is not related to the recent claims of Bihari migrants being attacked in Tamil Nadu.
How did we find out the truth?: We translated the background audio from Kannada language and it said, "Who has done this to you, brother? He has been stabbed. Someone call the ambulance fast."
We then looked for reports about stabbing incidents from Karnataka and contacted a few police stations to learn details about the viral video.
This led us to Baldandi who clarified to us that this video does not show a migrant worker from Bihar but shows a 17 year old boy who was attacked by a few locals in Doddabelavangala village in Bengaluru Rural district.
"This incident happened on 17 February when two local boys were stabbed to death over some fight over parking. We have arrested ten accused so far. It has nothing to do with the viral claims," he added.
FIR about the Bengaluru incident: We received the FIR number from the SP and checked the FIR online.
It only mentioned the names of the five accused, Vinay, Anil, Trimurthy, Kori and Deepu.
It also stated that the duo was declared dead while they were being taken to the hospital.
Reports about the stabbing incident: Several news media outlets like The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Times of India and Deccan Herald reported about the incident on 18 February.
The Indian Express report stated that the brawl started after a group parked their car at a college ground during a cricket tournament in Doddabelavangala.
It also stated that the car was attacked by the locals after which the group retaliated by allegedly stabbing two people to death who were wearing the t-shirts of the tournament.
It also mentioned that the police have identified the deceased, an engineering graduate, Bharath Kumar, 23 and a minor who was a pre-university student from Doddabelavangala village.
Action taken by police against misinformation about migrant workers: The Bihar Police has arrested one and booked three others for spreading misinformation by sharing misleading videos of alleged attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
The Bihar Police has found that "30 posts and videos" were shared to "deliberately" create an atmosphere of fear.
The Tamil Nadu Police charged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Prashant Umrao, an editor of Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and Patna-based journalist Mohammed Tanvir for "spreading enmity".
They have also registered a case against right-wing propaganda website OpIndia's CEO Rahul Roushan and editor Nupur Sharma.
It also booked the state's BJP chief K Annamalai for sharing "false messages."
Conclusion: An old and unrelated video of a person lying in a pool of blood is being shared to falsley claim that a Bihari migrant worker is being attacked in Tamil Nadu or Bengaluru.
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