A disturbing video is going viral on social media platforms showing an elderly man whose face blackened, wearing a garland of shoes, is being paraded by some locals. The viral video has drawn massive backlash on the internet for the depiction of indecency and inhumanity. Users on social media are sharing this video and trying to give it a communal angle.

Users who shared this video

Sharing this video on X(Twitter), a user named the Saviour wrote: “This is how ELDERLY Muslim men are treated in India”

The archive link can be seen here

Video went viral earlier

Furthermore, we found that the video had gone viral earlier on X. Several verified users shared this video and made similar claims.

Fact-Check

To investigate the claims made through the viral video, the DFRAC team converted this video into keyframes and reverse-searched it on Google. Meanwhile, we found some media reports in the context of the above viral video.

Media Reports from TOI, India Today, and Free Press Journal

According to a media report published by Times of India on December 9, 2023, Siddharthnagar police on Friday arrested four persons for blackening the face of a 76-year-old man and parading him in the village after forcing him to wear a garland of shoes. After the video of the incident went viral on Thursday evening, police swung into action and arrested four accused within 12 hours. Police said that some people of Tighrarai village in Siddharthnagar alleged that an elderly man used to call up a girl from a nearby village and talk to her inappropriately.

In addition to this, India Today published a media report on December 9, 2023. In this report, India Today mentioned: “A 75-year-old man was forced to wear a garland of shoes and lick his spit in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar, police on Friday said. According to the Police, the victim was Mohabbat Ali, a resident of Tighara village, whose face too was blackened with ink, the incident took place after a man filed a complaint against Ali for touching his daughter inappropriately. Police have arrested four people allegedly involved in Ali’s humiliation. The accused have been identified as Zafar, Aman Pandey, Akhilesh Sahni, and Ghanshyam Tiwari, Golhaura Police Station SHO Ajaynath Kannaujia said”.

Another report by Free Press Journal from December 2023, also reported similar facts about this incident.

Upon investigating further, we also found a newspaper cutting shared by Siddharatnagar Police on December 9, 2023, applauding the efforts of district police.

Additionally, the incident took place a month ago.

Conclusion

It is clear from DFRAC’s Fact-Check that the viral video shared with the claim of communal angle is misleading as there is no involvement of any communal angle in this incident. Moreover, the incident is from December 2023.