Video of Mob Thrashing Boy in MP's Dewas Shared With a Communal Spin

Both, the minor girl and boy who had eloped from their homes in UP's Balia district, are Hindus.

A video of a mob thrashing a minor boy surrounded by police is being circulated on social media to claim that he belonged to the Muslim community and was beaten up by members of Bajrang Dal, over suspicion of 'love jihad' in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal.

However, we found that the incident took place in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh and that the minor duo who had eloped from their homes in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia, belonged to the same community, ie Hindu.

CLAIM

The video is being shared with the claim in Hindi that reads: "हिंदू लड़की को लेकर भाग रहा था अब्दुल, बजरंग दल ने पकड़कर की पिटाई."

(Translation: Abdul was eloping with a Hindu girl. Members of Bajrang Dal thrashed him.)

Several social media users have shared the video along with the same claim and the archived versions of the posts can be found here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On carefully looking at the video, we noticed that the visuals showed 'Sonkatch Toll Plaza' in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh.

Taking cue from here, we used relevant keywords and searched on Google that led us to news reports by several media outlets detailing the incident.

A report by The Times of India on 4 September read that a mob had thrashed a 16-year-old boy in Dewas district, suspecting a case of 'love jihad', as he was travelling with a 12-year-old girl.

The police said that the duo had eloped from their homes in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia and that the minors belonged to the same community, the report added.

The mob thrashed the boy suspecting that he belonged to a minority community.

Quint Hindi, too, had carried visual of the incident in its report published on 4 September.

Speaking to The Quint's WebQoof team, Sonkatch area sub-divisional officer of police Prashant Singh Bhadoria confirmed that the boy being thrashed in the viral video is from the Hindu community.

No arrests have been made in the case so far, therefore it is not possible to say whether people in the mob are members of Bajrang Dal or not, Bhadoria added.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Akansha Bhichote further told us that both the minors belonged to the Hindu community and that a case has been registered against 15 unidentified people.

Clearly, an incident of a minor boy being beaten over suspicion of 'love jihad' was further communalised on social media.

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