A video of a group of people brutally beating a man and women is being shared to take a dig at the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government to claim that no action would be taken against the accused as they belonged to the Muslim community.
Several such claims have been made in the past to insinuate that the Congress wouldn't take action against minorities accusing them of appeasement politics.
While, the incident did take place in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, we found that it was a personal dispute and not a communal matter. SHO Lekhraj and local reporters told us that both – accused and victims – belong to the Hindu community.
CLAIM
The claim shared along with the video reads: "मुल्लों को कोई डर नहीं क्योंकि राजस्थान में इनकी कांग्रेस सरकार है, जय हो गहलोत अभी तक 5 दिन हो गए एक भी गिरफ़्तारी नहीं क्योंकि मारने वाले मुस्लिम हैं"
(Translated: Mullahs have no fear because they have a Congress government in Rajasthan, Jai Ho Gehlot. It has been five days so far and not a single arrest because the accused are Muslims.)
(Trigger Warning: Visuals can be distressing. Viewer discretion is advised)
The video shared by Facebook account of 'श्री बजरंग सेना' had garnered 15,000 views and 638 shares at the time of writing the article.
Several social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here, here, and here.
The Quint received multiple queries about the video on its WhatsApp tipline as well.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We came across a reply by Rajasthan Police Help Desk to a tweet that carried the viral visuals. The Twitter handle of Rajasthan police asked the Jodhpur police to give an update on the matter.
On 21 September, the Twitter handle of DCP East Jodhpur replied that a case had been registered at the Mahamandir police station and 10 people have been held under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC.
Taking a cue from here, we did a keyword search on Google and came across news reports by Navbharat Times and Patrika.
Reportedly, both the groups belonged to the same family and lived in the same neighbourhood and it was a matter of personal enmity. It was further reported that an argument broke out over a recently organised jagran (function).
WHAT DID THE POLICE SAY?
Speaking to The Quint's WebQoof team, SHO of the concerned police station, Lekhraj, called out the viral claim and said that there is no communal angle to the incident.
"Both the groups are Hindus and belong to the Khatik community. They are a part of the same family. The issue was related to one group not inviting the other group to a recently organised jagran."Lekhraj, SHO, Mahamandir police station
He further shared the names of the accused, out of whom, some have been arrested. The names include: Suresh, Devilal, Vikas, Ravinder, Sunil Kumar aka Sonu, Santosh, Manohar Lal, Bharat, Vishal, Ghanshyam, Pukhraj and Bhawani.
We also got in touch with two reporters in the area who reiterated that both the groups belonged to the same community and added that the incident happened on 19 September.
Evidently, social media users shared an incident of personal enmity that took place in Rajasthan's Jodhpur with a false communal spin.
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