A video of a man intimidating two youths to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ while verbally abusing the duo is being circulated on social media. Another man can also be heard in the background making derogatory religious statements. He may be the one filming the video. A Twitter user posted the clip without an appropriate context. “Nahi Ruk Rahe yeh log Aur Na Rukenge lagta (These people are not stopping and it seems they won’t stop -translated)”, reads the caption. The video was viewed more than 2,600 times at the time of writing this article.

The video is also circulating on WhatsApp.

Old video

We found that the video is actually from August 2016. In a longer version of the same clip posted by Twitter Osama Mazhar, the person abusing the duo can be heard identifying himself as “Amit Singh Rathod”. The incident took place in Surat, Gujarat.

“Crime branch on Tuesday began [an] investigation into the video with derogatory religious statements, which had led to attack on police station in Limbayat”, reported The Times of India on August 3, 2016. According to the report, the police had arrested Amit Singh Rathore, Ashutosh Dube, Vinod alias Guddu Tiwari, and, Sanjay Tiwari for their alleged involvement in making the video. The accused had confessed to having shot the video two months prior to when they were arrested. According to The Indian Express, the victims were migrant workers from Bihar.

In conclusion, a three-year-old video where two Muslim migrants were forced to chant Jai Shri Ram and slapped and intimidated with derogatory religious statements is viral in the backdrop of several such incidents that took place recently. This might give social media users a false impression that the incident occurred of late. We had earlier debunked another old video which was shared in the backdrop of Delhi police’s clash with a Sikh driver last month.

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About the Author

Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.