Ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, a video of a man being thrashed is being shared on social media.
The caption attached to the video claims that the man was beaten in the middle of a road for performing ‘aarti’ at his own house.
“बंगाल मे आने वाली फिल्म की झान्की बशर्ते परिवर्तन नहीं हुआ तो । घर में भी पूजा अर्चना आरती करना मना । एक वयोवृद्ध सनातनी ने अपने ही घर में आरती करने के क्रम में संभवतः छोटी घंटी बजाई । घर से खींचकर बीच सड़क पर लाकर क्या तबियत से पिटाई की गई । प्रिय बंधुवर , अभी यह स्थिति है तो यदि परिवर्तन नहीं हुआ तो क्या होगा कल्पना कर सकते हैं ।आप से विनम्र निवेदन है कि इस वीडियो को यथाशक्ति बंगाल मे अपने परिचितों से शीघ्रातिशीघ्र सान्झा करें ताकि बंगाल के घर घर गांव गांव झोपड़ी झोपड़ी पहुंच जाए । जय हिंद वन्दे मातरम ।” the Facebook post read.
(Translation: A peek upcoming film of Bengal if the change doesn’t happen. Even at home, it is forbidden to perform puja. A man rang a small bell in order to perform the aarti in his own house. For this, he was dragged out of the house and beaten in the middle of the road. Dear brothers, this is the situation now, if you do not change, then you can imagine what will happen. You are kindly requested to share this video as soon as possible with your acquaintances in Bengal. Jai Hind Vande Mataram)
Here’s the link to the above post.
More posts can be seen here, here, here, here, here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the post and found the claim to be false.
We extracted keyframes from the video and ran them through Reverse Image Search along with some keywords.
The search led us to a Facebook post dated 2017, where the screengrab of the same video was shared with a similar caption.
We then ran another search based on this and found a Facebook post by Kolkata Police dated 2017, where they have clarified that the claim is false.
“One video is posted on social media by people with vested interest with incorrect narrative. This is a wrong and mischievous. This priest was manhandled by the family members of the victim girl where he allegedly molested her during a household puja . FIR was registered vide no. P3-205 dated 31.08. 17,u/s 354/509 IPC. Counter FIR was also registered against people who assaulted this priest vide no P3 Case no 206 dated 31.08. 17 u/s 34/323/341 IPC. Legal action has been initiated against all the mischievous people spreading communal hatred during festivities.People are advised not to get misled by such posts. Kolkata Police is striving hard to verify all such posts and tell citizens the real truth. In case you come across any such post please forward it to us and don’t share it with your friends. Looking forward to your active cooperation. Thanks in advance. Happy Puja to all of you…..” the Facebook post read.
In the post, the Police clarified that the priest was beaten up by the crowd for allegedly molesting a girl and the crowd consisted of the girl’s family members.
Kolkata Police also provided the same clarification in a series of tweets in 2017.
Hence, from the above fact check, it is clear that an old video is being shared with a misleading context.
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