Hyderabad: Rumour mills always invent a new way to twist facts in a bid to generate fake news and at times, add a communal colour to it. One such video laced with wrong information alleging that the youth belonging to a particular community beating up an old man was in wide circulation on WhatsApp groups.
In the 105-second video, it is clearly seen that an elderly man was surrounded by an angry mob of youngsters beating him to the ground. The video was forwarded on the online messaging platform with a message that the old man was hit by the youth of a particular community in Delhi’s Zafarabad for shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai.
But in reality, the incident has no communal angle and it was the video of a mentally challenged old man named Hothchand Sindhi hit by the vendors near Azad Chowk in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara when the said person was demanding money from the vendors. The same was revealed in the fact-check done by Factly, a fake news busting platform. Factly was even able to access the FIR copy registered against the attackers by Sindhi’s son.
Also contrary to what is mentioned in the message attached to the video, Zafarabad is located in Uttar Pradesh but not Delhi. The video is yet another classic case of misleading the netizens with false information for reasons best known to the perpetrators.