Women Beaten on Suspicion of Child Lifting, No Communal Angle

(Editor’s Note: This story was first published on 3 September and is being republished from The Quint’s archive in the light of the video resurfacing on social media with a claim that it shows the plight of women in Jammu and Kashmir.)

CLAIM

A video which shows two women being beaten up by a crowd is being shared on WhatsApp with a claim that ‘Hindus are thrashing Muslims’ in India. The women are lying in mud and are repeatedly slapped and punched by a mob.

The Quint received a query about it on its WhatsApp number.

WHAT’S THE TRUTH?

The video hasn’t been manipulated in anyway, but the claim with which it is being shared is completely misleading. The video is from Bihar’s Sasaram district where two women were thrashed by a mob on suspicion of child lifting.

WHAT DID WE FIND OUT?

On looking for the video on Twitter using keywords ‘two women being thrashed’, we came across a tweet that suggested that the incident happened in Bihar’s Sasaram district in July 2019. It further hinted that these two women were thrashed on suspicion of child lifting.

Mob lynching incident took place in sasaram..People thrashed two women badly alleging child theft..Women are critically injured and admitted to phc of Daawath..People beaten both women mercilessly at the main road..Under police protection both are being given treatment.. pic.twitter.com/za13PEBDYp

— Rahul Deo Kumar (@RahulDeoKumar) July 26, 2019

We then used keywords ‘2 औरतो को मारा बिहार बचा चोरी’ and came across a report by Live Hindustan which corroborated what the tweet had suggested. According to the report, these two women were beaten up mercilessly by a crowd after someone accused them of being child lifters.

Speaking to The Quint, the Dawath Thana police rejected any communal angle to the story and said that the two women belonged to the Yadav community.

The women were identified as Sangeeta Devi and Baby Devi. They had earlier told the media that they were waiting to board an auto from Dawath to Gupta Dham in Sasaram district when the incident happened.

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