A video of six men brutally beating up a woman in public, while police officials watch without taking action, is being shared as a fake instance of ‘injustice against Dalit women’. The incident actually has no caste context and was a dispute between a husband and a wife over a domestic matter.
CLAIM
Six men can be seen in the video, beating and kicking the woman on the ground, who can be heard wailing. One man even hits her with a stick. While bystanders stop and stare, a couple of people appear to try and stop the men. But cops who can be seen in the frame do not appear to be taking any action.
One Twitter user shared the video with the claim that this was a Dalit woman who was being beaten up. The tweet had 5.5k views, 228 retweets and 274 likes at the time this story was published.
We also found that the video had been viral in May with the claim that the woman in the video belonged to the Muslim community.
The video was also shared with this communal angle on Facebook.
WHAT WE FOUND
On looking at messages on the tweet, The Quint found that the incident caught on video here had taken place in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur. On searching with keywords, we found that it had taken place in an area called Rehra Bazaar on 23 May.
According to news reports, one of the men who can be seen beating up the woman is her husband, and the others are all her relatives – three nephews and two brother-in-laws. According to the reports, the dispute had arisen between the woman, Sushila Devi and her husband, Ashok Kumar, over their house and some electricity cables in their house, which led to the latter beating her up along with other male members of the family.
Suresh Diwan of Rehra Bazaar police station confirmed the incident, as well as the names and identities of those involved in the incident to The Quint. He also told us that there was no caste angle involved and that the woman was not a Dalit.
He also said that four of the six men, who can be seen in the video, including Kumar, were arrested the same day as the incident and that efforts are underway to arrest the other two.
Balrampur Superintendent of Police Dev Ranjan Verma had also said the same in a video uploaded to Balrampur Police’s Twitter handle on 23 May. SP Verma also added that the policemen seen in the video not taking any action had been suspended from duty.
Therefore, it is clear that a domestic dispute over a house between a husband and a wife, which led to the latter being thrashed is being falsely shared with the claim that this is injustice against a Dalit or a Muslim woman. There is neither any caste, nor any communal angle in the incident.
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