What’s the truth behind viral video of two women beaten, kicked around in mud by mob?

A video of a mob brutally beating up two women by rounding them up in a muddy spot is being shared on social media without background or context. Twitter user Khurshid Ansari posted the video on August 7 with a message, “आप ऐसी घटनाओं से विचलित ना हों।और ना ही इसे अपराध या अमानवीयता समझें। धरती के जिस जिस भाग में जब जब असुरों/राक्षसों का राज्य स्थापित हुवा है। वहाँ ऐसे आयोजन खेल और मनोरंजन के लिये किया जाना साधारण बात थी। ऐसे आयोजन से असुर सत्ता की शक्ति का विस्तार होता है।
(You don’t be disturbed by such incidents and nor should it be considered a crime or inhumanity. Whenever around the globe, a state of demons is established, there such kind of sport or entertainment has been usual. These setups further the power of the demon’s state. -translated)”

आप ऐसी घटनाओं से विचलित ना हों।
और ना ही इसे अपराध या अमानवीयता समझें।

धरती के जिस जिस भाग में जब जब असुरों/राक्षसों का राज्य स्थापित हुवा है।

वहाँ ऐसे आयोजन खेल और मनोरंजन के लिये किया जाना साधारण बात थी।

ऐसे आयोजन से असुर सत्ता की शक्ति का विस्तार होता है।
😕👇#NewIndia pic.twitter.com/R0E8jZeH5q

— Khurshid Ansari (@AnsariK786) August 7, 2019

The message posted along with the video doesn’t refer to the location of the video, let alone the context of the incident. Over a period of time, Alt News has observed that many individuals tend to post gruesome videos without any narrative which are then reduced to speculation and misleading narratives. Alt News has received several requests on its official App to fact-check the video.

The same video posted by a Twitter account named Friends of Kashmir has garnered more than 2,000 retweets.

Fact-check

With several incidents of people beaten-up across the northern states due to child-kidnapping rumours and seeing the manner in which the duo was beaten, we had a doubt that the video could be of one of several such incidents. Furthermore, based on the comments posted by several individuals, we searched for news reports with keywords such as ‘two women beaten over suspicion of being child-lifters’.

Sangeeta Devi and Baby Devi, two sisters who are residents of Alamganj, Patna were beaten by a mob over a false suspicion of the duo being child-kidnappers. According to a report by Dainik Bhaskar, the two had hired a tempo (rickshaw) while one was standing near the vehicle and the other was accompanying three children towards the tempo. The woman carrying these children was then questioned by the locals after one of the children started crying at Maliyabagh area of Rohtas district. She got terrified and gave inappropriate answers in response and hollered for her sister. This led to chaos where the tempo left the scene following which the women were caught by the mob and brutally beaten-up, stated the report.

According to SHO Shashi Bhushan Prasad’s statement reported by Dainik Jagran, these two sisters wanted to travel to Gupt Dham from Sasaram city via Bikramganj but instead, they mistakenly took a wrong bus and reached Maliyabagh. He further added that on being informed by the bus conductor, the duo got down at Maliyabagh and started searching for a tempo to hire.

Alt News contacted Dawath police regarding this matter. SHO Prasad said, “They weren’t child kidnappers, we have verified with the local police in Patna. An FIR has been registered against 1000 people.” We were informed that the police is investigating the matter further and have collected the footage of the incident.

At 1:22 mins in the TV9 Bharatvarsh report, the women, mistaken as child-kidnappers by the mob, can be heard explaining their ordeal and rubbishing the mob’s suspicion.

In conclusion, a video of two women who were beaten up by a mob based on the false accusation that these women were child-lifters is now circulating with the misleading narrative. Recently, Alt News has compiled several instances of videos and images circulating on social media with child-lifting rumours.