On March 6, 2023, the far-left news website Hindutva Watch shared a video with claims that a Hindu mob led by Hindu religious leader Aastha Maa thrashed and shaved the head of a Muslim boy Shahrukh on suspicion of theft. A number of Twitter users amplified the claim and demanded those ‘Hindu’ perpetrators to be arrested.
On Tuesday, however, the Ghaziabad police took to Twitter to fact-check the lies propagated by Hindutva Watch, by confirming that there was no communal angle in the incident, as insinuated by the leftist website.
On Monday, Hindutva Watch posted a video wherein a youth was being seen beaten up by a group of people. They captioned the post, “Location: Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh Hindu far-right leader Aastha Maa and a mob accused a Muslim youth of theft. They then brutally thrashed the youth and shaved his head.” The video insinuated that Aastha Maa-led Hindus allegedly beat the young man solely because of his religious affiliation.
Location: Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) March 6, 2023
Hindu far-right leader Aastha Maa and a mob accused a Muslim youth of theft.
They then brutally thrashed the youth and shaved his head. pic.twitter.com/IfpvQZXa7O
The website also uploaded a Facebook post by ‘Aastha Maa’ about the incident and misconstrued it to infer that the Hindu leader wrote about it to glorify the violence carried out by her supporters against Muslims.
No sooner did the website post the video, Jamia Times journalist Ahmed Khabeer, reposted the video and wrote, “A mob led by Hindutva leader Aastha Maa brutally thrashed a Muslim boy Shahrukh and made him bald in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad because he had “Ustraa Blade” with him.”
A mob led by Hindutva leader Aastha Maa brutally thrashed a Muslim boy Shahrukh and made him bald in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad because he had “Ustraa Blade” with him.
— Ahmed Khabeer احمد خبیر (@AhmedKhabeer_) March 6, 2023
pic.twitter.com/wY02nGZBD7
Another Twitter user Sana Khan also reposted the video shared by Hindutva Watch with similar claims.
A youth named Shahrukh was beaten and his head shaved on suspicion of theft by hindu right wing leader Aastha maa and her followers in #Ghaziabad, UP.
— Saba Khan (@ItsKhan_Saba) March 6, 2023
She later shared the incidence on her fb page. pic.twitter.com/b9jZh7YGdZ pic.twitter.com/vh57eEVHcu
Shahrukh was thrashed by Shahzad, Jaansher, Sahabu, Mohanlal and Rahbhajan for stealing money from a shop
The Ghaziabad police took to Twitter on Tuesday, March 7, to refute the claims that the leftist website and Islamists made while attributing the attack to a Hindu mob led by the religious leader. The police made it clear that there was no communal aspect to the crime, contrary to what the Islamists on Twitter suggested.
The Ghaziabad police said in a statement released on Tuesday (March 7) that the video that went viral on March 6 was shared with the intention to portray that people belonging to a particular religion did it to stir up communal tensions. The allegations, however, they said were misleading and false, explaining what actually transpired.
कुछ लोगों द्वारा चोरी के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति की पिटाई व मुंडन करने की वायरल वीडियो का पुलिस द्वारा तत्काल संज्ञान लेते हुए सलमान,शाहरुख,अनिल,जयकिशन व वाजिद नामक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया है।किसी धर्म/समुदाय विशेष के विरुद्ध किसी प्रकार का द्वेषगत मामला नहीं पाया गया है| ACP सा0बाद pic.twitter.com/sQDdjzF8vd
— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE GHAZIABAD (@ghaziabadpolice) March 7, 2023
The police revealed that the incident took place outside Jaikishan Sharma alias Pandit’s milk dairy at Garima garden in Ashok Vatika, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. They clarified that a youth named Shahrukh, who is seen being beaten up in the viral video, was caught stealing Rs 100 by the dairy owner who then beat him up with some people in the locality.
The police stated that the accused persons, who were identified on the basis of the viral video, were Salman, Shahrukh, Anil, Jaikishan and Wajid.
Even hours after the Ghaziabad Police released an official statement busting the fake claims, the ‘Hindutva Watch’ handle was yet to delete the tweet when this report was published.
