Fact-Check: Video of strangling 25 year old falsely linked to communal claim.

A video is making rounds on X showing a man being thrashed by other men in the library. Users are sharing this video and claiming that a Muslim man was lynched inside a library by Hindutva men in Rajasthan, India because he refused to play Holi

An account with the username @ ziajabed97 posted this video and wrote: “A Muslim man was lynched inside a library by Hindutva men in Rajasthan, India because he refused to play Holi”

Moreover, several other users shared this video and made similar claims on X. The preview link can be seen here.

Fact-Check

In the probe, the DFRAC team found that the video had been misrepresented on X.

We reverse-searched the keyframes generated by the viral video, which led us to the latest reports published by the Hindustan Times, TOI, and India TV.

As per reports, a 25-year-old man named Hansraj in Rajasthan was allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan’s Dausa district for trying to stop three men from applying colour on him ahead of Holi.

Furthermore, the reports stated that Ralwas village residents Ashok, Bablu and Kaluram reached a local library to apply colour on the deceased named Hansraj. Since he refused to be smeared with colours, he was allegedly kicked and thrashed with belts by the trio and one of the accused strangled Hansraj to death.

Conclusion

It is evident from DFRAC’s Fact-check that the viral video has been falsely linked to a communal claim. In reality, the deceased Hansraj was strangled to death as he refused to be smeared with colours.

Analysis: Misleading