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| - Fact Check: Assam mob lynching case shared on social media with false communal narrative
A mob in Assam's Tinsukia district lynched a man on suspicion of cow theft on Saturday. Soon after, a false claim that this was yet another instance of Hindutva mobs in India targetting Muslims on false accusations went viral on social media.
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India Today Fact Check
The incident took place in the wee hours of Saturday, June 12, in Assam’s Tinsukia district. The victim was not Muslim, but a Hindu. Police have ruled out any communal angle to the incident.
In the wee hours of Saturday, a mob in Assam’s Tinsukia district lynched a man on suspicion of cow theft. Soon after, many on social media claimed that this was yet another instance of Hindutva mobs in India targetting Muslims on false accusations.
Sharing the link of an article by news portal “The Wire”, journalist CJ Werleman tweeted, “A 28-year-old Muslim man was beaten to death by a Hindutva mob on Saturday night in Assam after being falsely accused of cow theft.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading as the victim was a Hindu.
The claim is going viral on Facebook too. The archived version can be seen here.
AFWA investigation
Almost every news report on the incident named the victim as Sarat Moran and none of them said he was a Muslim.
For further clarification, we reached out to Tinsukia Superintendent of Police Debojit Deori, who confirmed that the claim is false and the victim belonged to Assam’s Moran community. There is no communal angle to the incident, he said.
As per a report by “East Mojo” the victim was rescued by police from Tinsukia’s Korjonga village and shifted to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Citing sources, the report says Sarat had gone to a friend’s place where he was caught by villagers on suspicion of being a cow smuggler. The villagers then severely thrashed Sarat after which he died.
Police detained 12 people in connection with the incident.
Assam has seen repeated instances of mob lynching over the past few years. In 2017, two men Abu Hanifa and Riyazuddin Ali, were killed by a mob in Assam’s Nagaon district on suspicion of cattle theft.
A similar incident took place in 2018 in Biswanath district, where one person was killed and three injured.
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