A father-son duo was arrested on June 19 in Sathankulam town near Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. Four days later, 62-year-old P Jeyaraj and his 32-year-old son J Bennix died in police custody. They were reportedly taken to the police station for keeping their mobile phone shop open beyond the permitted time during the lockdown. According to an article by Outlook, the duo was allegedly beaten with lathis in their private parts and died due to police torture after suffering multiple injuries. Four policemen were suspended in this matter.
On social media, the incident has led to citizens demanding strict punishment for the accused. Twitter handle ‘@DMK4TN‘ posted a disturbing video of a man being tortured by a group of individuals. In the video, the men can be seen trying to insert a rod in the victim’s private parts. The accompanying claim asserted that the video showed the recent incident from Tuticorin. Alt News is not embedding the video in the article owing to its graphic nature. However, a screenshot has been attached below. At the time of writing the article, the tweet garnered more than 200 retweets.
The video is also getting shared on Facebook with the same claim.
Fact-check
The video is unrelated to the recent incident from Tuticorin district. Alt News had earlier debunked it in October 2019 when it was shared with the claim that it showed the torture meted out by “BJP leader Anil Upadhyay”. According to the database of myneta, a website which contains details about state and central legislators, no person who goes by this name is a part of the BJP.
Our fact-check had then revealed that the incident took place in Maharashtra. The owner of a Waddhamna-based transport service Akhil Pohankar and his fellow transporter Amit Thakre were arrested on July 28, 2019, for torturing a driver by hanging him upside-down from the ceiling. “The clips were allegedly prepared at the office of Pohankar, also office-bearer of a political party, a day before to teach the 23-year-old driver Vicky Aglawe a lesson. Aglawe was given Rs 30,000 cash by Pohankar as expenses for taking his truck, loaded with glass consignment, to Thiruvananthapuram on July 26. Aglawe apparently spent the money on liquor, clothes and feasting. He also did not turn up despite repeated calls by Pohankar,” reported The Times of India on July 29, 2019. A report by Dainik Bhaskar stated that Akhil Pohankar was Shiv Sena’s youth wing Yuva Sena tehsil chief from Nagpur district.
An old video of a man tortured by Shiv Sena’s youth wing tehsil chief was falsely shared as visuals of alleged police torture which led to the death of father-son duo P Jeyaraj and Bennix in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district.
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