Old 2023 Video From Punjab Wrongly Attributed to Uttar Pradesh, Falsely Portrays Victim as Christian, No Communal Aspect Involved

A disturbing and heart-wrenching video of some miscreants brutally attacking a man with weapons like an iron pipe while he was pleading for mercy is being shared with the misleading claim that the incident allegedly happened in Uttar Pradesh where a Christian priest was beaten by Hindus.

Peter Mate on X (formerly Twitter), sharing the video wrote, “#If you don’t pray now, then when will you pray. Heartbreaking sight of anti-evangelicals harassing God’s servants in Uttar Pradesh.Religion is for Love,Peace & Charity but Hindus in India are like http://Satanists.No love for Human beings.”

Another user wrote, “If you don’t pray now, then when will you pray (𝗨𝗣) Heartbreaking sight of anti-evangelicals harassing God’s servants in Uttar Pradesh.” (archived link)

Moreover, user He-Lee Kikonyang Naga wrote, “RAM RAJ If you don’t pray now, then when will you pray (𝗨𝗣) Heartbreaking sight of anti-evangelicals harassing God’s servants in Uttar Pradesh.” (archived link)

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Fact Check

To find out the authenticity of the video being circulated with the claim of a Christian man being beaten up in Uttar Pradesh, we extracted keyframes from the video and did a reverse image search. Through reverse image search we found several reports that refute the viral claim.

According to the Dainik Bhaskar report where we spotted the same keyframe, the incident is from 2023 and reportedly took place in Sangrur district of Punjab. The report has revealed that due to personal and old enmity, a person named Sonu Kumar was beaten by 6 people. People attacked him brutally with an iron pipe and broke both his legs and both his hands. He also suffered serious injuries on other parts of his body. He kept pleading the attackers to leave him but he was shown no mercy. Later Sonu was admitted to Bathinda hospital where his condition was critical.

Furthermore, we uncovered through the Indian Express report that a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against the attackers. In his complaint, Sonu told the police that he was going on his motorcycle with his 18-year-old son Buta Singh to bring a geyser from his father Gurcharan Singh’s house. When they reached Bajigar Basti, Mani Singh’s mother Malkit Kaur gathered people and said that they should teach Sonu a lesson.

A complaint under the Indian Penal Code for attempt to murder was registered against Mani Singh, his mother Malkit Kaur and other accused Lavi Singh, Amrik Singh and Gopal Singh of the same village.

Also, in the report of Punjab Kesari, it has been said that due to old enmity in Punjab, a person named Sonu Kumar was fatally attacked by 6 people.

We also found a tweet by Sangrur Police which says, “One video of Sunam is going viral on social media platforms in which one person is being beaten mercilessly by 4 persons along with others. In this incident, an FIR 29 dated 15/02/23 under 307, 323,324,325,506,148,149 IPC had been registered against 6 accused in PS City Sunam,..”

None of the reports mentioned that the person being attacked was a Christian and that he was brutally beaten by Hindus. Therefore, the claim going viral with the video is false.

Claim	Hindus brutally beat a Christian priest in Uttar Pradesh
Claimed by	X users
Fact Check	False

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