Fact Check: Ujjain vandalism arrests video FALSELY given communal angle
The individuals in the video are not Muslim, but Hindu. This incident is linked to a car-wash dispute in Ujjain — not any case of harassment of Hindu girls by Muslim youths.
A video of the police parading three young men dressed in black while beating them has gone viral on social media. Those sharing the clip claimed that three Muslim youths named Md Sameer, Nadeem, and Asif Ali were brutally beaten by the police for harassing Hindu girls outside a college.
India Today Fact Check found that the accused are not Muslim; they are Hindu youths involved in a vandalism case in Ujjain on April 16. Police arrested three of the five accused, while two remained absconding.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral clip led us to a news report featuring the same video on the YouTube channel of MP Talk, posted on April 20. According to the report, individuals in the video vandalised cars, bikes, and houses in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, after a dispute concerning a car wash. When the police arrived at the scene one hour later, the suspects had already fled. However, within 24 hours of the incident, the police arrested several of the accused.
According to a Navbharat Times report featuring a screenshot from the viral clip, on April 16, Sheran Ali, who operates a car wash centre on MR-5 Road in Ujjain, refused to wash the vehicle of a group of miscreants that day due to time constraints.
In retaliation, the five accused men arrived at Sheran's residence in Bafna Park Colony, Ujjain, around 2 am on April 17 and vandalised the property for nearly an hour. After reviewing CCTV footage, the police arrested three of the five suspects. They took these individuals, Kishan Ahirwar, Vishal Sawariya, and Vikas Sawariya, to the scene of the incident and beat them.
India Today Fact Check reached out to ASP Alok Sharma of Ujjain for further clarification on the matter. He confirmed that the three individuals featured in the video were not Muslim; they were Hindu. He confirmed the names of the accused and said that this case was unrelated to any allegations of harassment against Hindu girls by Muslim youths.
Sharma added that the remaining two suspects, Rishi Mishra and Sahil Gurjar, are still at large, and the police are actively pursuing them.
Thus, it's clear that this video was falsely given a communal angle.
Key Insights
- This topic is currently trending
- Experts are closely monitoring developments
- It may impact future decisions
