No, the Man Being Beaten Up in That UP Mosque Is Not Dalit

A viral video on social media falsely claimed that the man being beaten in the video is a Dalit.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A video of man being beaten by a group of men has emerged on social media. Claims along with the video state that a Dalit man was dragged inside a mosque somewhere in Uttar Pradesh and beaten severely. The video was tweeted by user @shailen_pratap who is followed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

(Photo: Twitter screenshot)

The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.

The video shows a man being beaten while he is begging for them to stop. The group of men even drag him around on the floor.

The video was viral on Twitter with over 1,800 retweets and 1,300 likes at the time this story was written. The video was also in circulation on WhatsApp.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The claim around the video is false. While it’s true that the man in the video was beaten inside a mosque, he is not Dalit. The incident is from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh and the man who is being beaten up is a Muslim. The men who are beating him up are also Muslims.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On listening to the video, we heard mention of mobile phones being stolen. Then, using keywords "man beaten inside mosque for stealing Uttar Pradesh,” we found a Dainik Bhaskar news report about the incident.

According to the report, a young man suspected of having stolen mobile phones in Hapur was locked up in a room and beaten by a group of men. The young man, identified as Sameer, was held hostage by these men for some time while he was beaten till the family arrived, freed him and took him to the hospital. The men beating Sameer also recorded their assault.

Hapur Superintendent of Police Yesh Veer Singh confirmed to The Quint that the man in the video was beaten up but he is not Dalit.

“On 29 May, Sameer was beaten on the suspicion of having stolen the phones of a group of Muslims who had come from Bulandshahr. While the group told us that Sameer had confessed in front of them that he had stolen phones, we weren’t able to recover any phones from him.”

Yesh Veer Singh, superintendent of police, Hapur

He further added that the matter had been mutually resolved and nobody told the police about the incident at the time it happened.

“On 2 June, a complaint was registered by Zeeshan, Sameer’s brother, against the people who had beaten Sameer under IPC 323 and 504 and three people were arrested,” he said.

He also told us that challans were issued to the three people, which was also tweeted through Hapur police’s official handle.

(The Quint tried contacting Sameer and the story will be updated if and when he responds)

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