Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
With Karnataka’s HC’s decision on barring hijab in educational institutions being challenged in the SC, a new video, showing a woman thrashing a youth donning a saffron scarf is viral. Users sharing the video claim that the youth was being thrashed for objecting to the woman “wearing cloth on her head”. The claim is false, and the incident had nothing to do with the woman wearing a headscarf.
Twitter user @pathan_neamath was among the many users who shared the video of the woman thrashing a youth in the middle of the road. The tweet has received around 200 retweets and about 300 likes.
Several other users also shared the same video on Twitter and Facebook.
Fact check/Verification
To find if the video really showed a woman thrashing a man for objecting to headscarf, Newschecker split the video into several key frames using the InVid tool and conducted a Google reverse image search on the keyframes.
The search threw up tweets carrying the same video that were tweeted on June 15. Users who posted the video identified it to be from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh,
One of the handles that tweeted the video, @KashifKakvi, wrote “woman thrashes man in the middle of the road for misbehaviour. Several others also joined her in thrashing the man.”
We also found another tweet by user @parmod_ahuja, who tweeted the video with the same description.
Update: We noticed that the man, sporting the saffron scarf, was being dragged by his collar by another man in black and white check shirt. Furthermore, the woman and the others, while thrashing him, are heard taunting ‘Chedo ab’ (misbehave now).
Using these as clues, Newschecker probed further, and found a report published in a reputed Hindi publication that revealed that the incident took place in Bina, a city in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. “After molesting (a girl) the youth ran away. Then the girl ran after him screaming. Seeing this, some people also started running. And caught the accused and beat him fiercely in the middle of the road. The girl took off her slippers and beat the young man. The accomplice of the girl has also thrashed the one who molested her. Not only this, the people present on the spot also beat up the young man,” the article read.
Update: We also found another report published in OneIndia, that revealed that the incident took place in Khurai area of Bina, and that the youth misbehaved with the woman when she was waiting for her ride. According to the article, though the police turned up at the spot later, the woman refused to lodge a complaint.
With these we understand that the woman did not thrash the youth for objecting to headscarf, rather for misbehaving with her.
Newschecker has reached out to SP of Sagar district for comments on the video. The article will be updated with his response when we receive it.
Conclusion
A video of a young woman thrashing a man who misbehaved with her, is shared with a communal claim.
Result: False
Sources
News report published in Dainik Bhaskar on June 15
Twitter post by @parmod_ahuja posted on June 15
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Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
