Bull getting tortured: Distressing video from Punjab falsely viral as ISKCON Bangladesh

The story uses only screenshots in view of the graphic nature of the video being fact-checked.

A disturbing video showing four individuals brutally thrashing a bull is viral on social media with the claim that the footage is from a cowshed belonging to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Bangladesh. Many social media users have also alleged that Muslims were inflicting cruelty upon the animal to incite the minority Hindu population in the country.

The clip has gone viral at a time when targeted attacks on minorities in the neighbouring country have been making headlines. The unrest in Bangladesh, which began with rallies against former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has not subsided even after a new government was formed under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus.

On December 6, X user ‘Mr. Nationalist’ (@MrNationalistJJ) shared the viral video, claiming that the footage was from ISKCON Bangladesh. At the time of this article being written, the post already has over 65,000 views. (Archive)

The same video was also shared by verified user Sudanshu Trivedi (@Sudanshutrivedi). It has been re-tweeted almost 800 times, besides being viewed more than 50,000 times. (Archive)

Another X user, @ocjain4, also shared the video. The accompanying caption, in Hindi, alleged that ‘Jihadis’ were beating up cows reared in ISKCON’s cowsheds. The post was later deleted. (Archive)

Note that Alt News has previously debunked several viral claims made by this user. (See here, here and here.)

Soon, a few other accounts on X, such as Samrat Verma (@samrat_verma72) and Geeta Patel (@geetappoo), also made the same claim. Verma’s tweet had the hashtag ‘Save Bangladeshi Cows.’ (Archives: 1, 2)

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The post was also viral on Facebook with the same claim. Alt News received several requests on its WhatsApp helpline number (7600011160) to authenticate the video.

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Fact Check

To check the veracity of the claims, we first did a reverse image search on one of the frames from the viral clip, which led us to this video on YouTube uploaded on November 21. This video is the same as the one in the viral claims.

The YouTube video came with an embedded Hindi caption. Here it clearly says that the footage is from a dairy farm in Jalandhar, Punjab, It also exhorted viewers to tag representatives of the Punjab government and bring the matter to their attention.

We found another tweet from November 19, by user @faisalbaig3102, urging relevant authorities to recognise and punish the perpetrators in the video. PETA India (@PetaIndia) too had taken note of the video and responded to it. 

सदर पुलिस स्टेशन द्वारा पहले ही भारतीय न्याय संहिता (बीएनएस) की धारा 325 और पशु क्रूरता निवारण (पीसीए) अधिनियम की धारा 11 के तहत एक प्राथमिकी दर्ज की जा चुकी है। हम एफआईआर में गोहत्या निषेध अधिनियम, 1955 के प्रावधानों को शामिल करने के लिए पुलिस उपायुक्त (डीसीपी) के साथ बात कर रहे…

— PETA India (@PetaIndia) November 20, 2024

Here’s a translation of the text:”An FIR has already been registered by the Sadar police station under Section 325 of the Indian Penal Code (BNS) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act. We are talking to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) to include provisions of the Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 in the FIR.”

To further verify, Alt News ran a relevant keyword search and came across a report by The Tribune from November 20. It says that residents and the Animal Protection Foundation had held protests and lodged a complaint with the police demanding strict action against the men in the viral video.

A First Information Report, or FIR, was filed after this complaint and the Animal Protection Foundation’s Facebook page had a post on November 18 with a copy of the FIR.

To sum up, Alt News’s investigation found that the viral video showing individuals flogging a bull is not from Bangladesh but from a dairy farm in Punjab’s Jalandhar.