Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
A video showing a group of women beating up a man has recently gone viral, with users claiming it to be of “Kerala Hindu girls attacking a Muslim man for his misbehaviour”.
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The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here, here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes of the video, which led us to this Malayalam news report published by a news website, Reporter, dated January 6, 2023, stating that 11 women were detained in connection to an assault case in front of an Irinjalakuda meditation centre.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search which led us to this news report published by OnManorama, dated January 7, 2023, and titled “11 women arrested over assaulting man who cut ties with Irinjalakuda cult”.
According to the report, “A Christian cult based at Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district is in the news again for wrong reasons. A man who had cut ties with the Emperor Emmanuel Church came under a mob attack on Friday. Eleven women, who are followers of the cult, were taken into custody and remanded. Aloor Police have booked the women with charges including attempt to murder. The mob attack happened before a retreat centre at Muriyad in Irinjalakuda. The women had ganged up and assaulted a man named Shaji who had parted ways with the Church.”
“In his statement to the police Shaji said about 50 persons assaulted him. The women, however, claimed that they assaulted him as he had morphed and circulated pictures,” the report said.
A further search led us to a report published by Asianet News, featuring the viral video, dated January 2023.
“Shaji, his son Sajan, wife Ashlyn, relatives Edwin, Anwin and others. were beaten up in Muriyad Plateau while they were travelling in a car. Shaji’s family is non-religious. Sajan, who was travelling in a car, was stopped by a group of women for allegedly circulating a morphed nude picture of a woman there after he left the Emanuel congregation,” read the report, translated from Malayalam. Moreover, there is no indication that the man who was beaten up has any political connections.
Kairali TV also published the video on its YouTube channel on January 6, 2023 with a similar description.
An officer from Aloor police station told Newschecker, “In this case, neither the perpetrators nor the victims of violence have come to their attention as having any political connections. We have received a complaint about the morphed images being circulated and an investigation is underway. Those images are uploaded from overseas IP address. The police are investigating whether the person who was attacked was involved.”
Newschecker also spoke to Dr Edison, who is in charge of public relations at Emperor Emmanuel Church, Muriyad, who said, “After leaving the church, Shaji and his family tried to defame the believers in various ways. Shaji has morphed and circulated pictures of a woman respected by many in the congregation, which has angered women,” he said.
Conclusion
Viral video of clash related to a Kerala church falsely claimed to be of Hindu women assaulting Muslim man for misbehaviour.
Result: False
Sources
OnManorama news report, January 7, 2023
News report in Asianet news website, January 6,2023
Conversation with Aloor police station
Conversation with Dr Edison, Emperor Emmanuel Church
(This fact-check was originally done for Newschecker Malayalam by Sabloo Thomas)
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
