A 26-second video of two men pouring beer on a Shivling has been circulating widely on social media. It is being claimed that the two are Muslims who committed this act to provoke Hindus.
Twitter handle ‘@VISHNUK35030487’ tweeted the clip with this claim. (Archive link)
शिवलिंग पर बियर डालकर हिन्दुओ की भावनाओ को भड़काया जा रहा है, यह दो जिहादी जनता के हाथ चढ़ गए तो संबिधान का रोना रोयेंगे लोग चंडीगढ़ का वीडियो बताया जा रहा यह pic.twitter.com/DNTAxq8zBN
— VISHNU KUMAR MISHRA (@VISHNUK35030487) June 25, 2022
Several users promoted the video on Facebook and Twitter.
Fact-check
Alt News performed a keyword search and came across a report by TV9 Bharatvarsh dated June 25, 2022. The report said that the incident took place in Chandigarh.
A report by The Indian Express from June 27 states that the video was shot near the Ghaggar river in Panchkula. After it went viral on social media, police arrested the two accused, Dinesh Kumar and Naresh Kumar.
The article quotes the police as saying that Dinesh Kumar had deleted the video from his phone even before he was arrested. The police added that Dinesh and Naresh had gone for a walk near the Ghaggar river. They were intoxicated when they came across a broken shivling and poured the beer over it as a joke while asking a minor to record them. A report by Amar Ujala also identifies the accused as Dinesh and Naresh.
Speaking to a few fact-checking websites, Chandigarh police clarified that the claim about the accused being Muslim is false. (Link 1, Link 2)
To sum it up, the two men seen pouring beer over a Shivling are not Muslims, but Hindus. A video of the incident was circulated online with a false communal claim.
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