On April 24, 2023, a disturbing video went viral on social media platforms showing a group of men brutally assaulting an elderly Muslim man and cutting off his beard. The graphic footage quickly sparked outrage and condemnation from people all around the world. A Hinduphobic journalist with the Twitter handle name Aqssss shared the video and made a shocking claim in his tweet, stating, “What an animalistic behavior; A Hindutva mob in Uttar Pradesh lynched an elderly Muslim man & subjected him to a brutal attack, before cutting his beard off with scissors. Where is the government of Modi?”
Another serial fake news spreader Majid Freeman, known for instigating attacks on the Hindu community in Leicester, UK, has also shared the video, adding his own inflammatory comments. Majid Freeman accused a Hindutva mob in Uttar Pradesh of lynching and brutally attacking the elderly man before cutting off his beard with scissors. He also claimed that this was an everyday occurrence, fueling the narrative of Hindu extremism against Muslims and minorities.
Apart from this, another anti-India and anti-Hindu Twitter user, Riffat Wani, whose Twitter account is already withheld in India, shared the video on social media, adding to the already heated discussion. In her tweet, Riffat Wani accused a Hindutva mob in Uttar Pradesh of lynching the elderly man and subjecting him to a brutal attack. Her use of the word “compelling” implies that the elderly man had no choice but to remove his beard, adding to the outrage.
So, is it true that a Hindutva mob attacked the elderly Muslim man and later cut his beard off? Let’s Fact Check.
Fact Check
During our research, we first did keyword research with the words, Muslim man thrashed and his beard chopped off. During this, we came across a report by India Today published on June 15, 2021. According to the report, the incident took place in Loni, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on June 5, 2021. The report states that the victim and the accused have known each other for a long time. The victim had sold a tabeez (amulet) to key accused Parvesh, but he complained that it had an adverse effect on his family. In response, Parvesh called Abdul Samad to his residence and started thrashing him with his friends Kallu, Aadil, Arif, and Mushahid. Interestingly, the report highlights that three-four of the accused were Muslims. The police confirmed that there was no communal angle to the incident, and the accused were arrested following the case’s registration.
Apart from this, the Police revealed that the first FIR filed on June 7, 2023, did not name any of the accused. The victim, Abdul Samad, knew the accused, but there was no mention of their names in the complaint. Moreover, there was also no mention of the victim being forced to chant “Jai Shree Ram” in the FIR.
Since the incident was from Ghaziabad, we decided to verify the incident through the Ghaziabad Police Commissionerate’s official Twitter handle. In the meantime, we stumbled upon a video bite of the Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, stating that the police had taken strict action in the incident that took place under the Loni police station area. The police confirmed that the three accused, namely Parvesh, Kallu, and Aadil, had been arrested. According to the Police, The victim, Abdul Samad, used to make tabeez, but Parvesh complained that it had an adverse effect on his family. In response, Parvesh and his friends thrashed Abdul. However, the police also stated that the other accused would also be arrested in due course.
Moreover, this video of an elderly Muslim man getting beaten was circulated with similar fake claims in 2021 also. This led to a First Information Report (FIR) being registered against nine individuals, including Twitter, Congress leader Salman Nizami, journalists like Mohammad Zubair and Rana Ayyub, and news agency The Wire for spreading fake news.
So, all these points prove that the viral video claiming a recent communal attack on an elderly Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh is actually from June 2021 and there was no communal angle to it. The victim and accused knew each other for a long time, and most of the accused were Muslims. So, it’s clear that Aqssss, Majid Freeman, and Riffat Wani made false claims with the intention of instigating communal tension by spreading fake news on social media.
| Claim | Hindus attacked the elderly Muslim man and later cut his beard off |
| Claimed by | Aqssss, Majid Freeman, and Riffat Wani |
| Fact Check | False and Misleading |
Also Read: Fact Check: Debunking Al Jazeera’s anti-India Propaganda
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