Saharanpur(UP, India): A news with distorted facts and caste hatred is doing rounds on social media. The news which was covered by many media outlets has been published in such a manner that it promotes caste hatred between the two communities.
The English media outlet Times of India has claimed that a ‘Dalit youth was accosted, abused, held at knife-point, and had his beard shaved off by a group of Thakur men in a Saharanpur village’.
The claim was merely based on an FIR that TOI and other media outlets used to propagate caste-based one-sided news. Not a single statement from other villagers or the alleged accused side was taken by these mainstream media outlets.
However, to fact check the ground reality we reached the village where the alleged incident had happened. The gram sarpanch of the village said that the alleged accused and the Dalit youth were friends. They used to eat and sit together. These men had a bet over an issue which the other side had won. No one has pressurized the Dalit youth to shave his beard.
“Rajat said to me that he had to clean his beard for the exams. However, when the barber was shaving his beard and mustache they filmed the video and shared it with their friends. Just to show that they won the bet”, Gram Pradhan’s husband Satish Kumar told Neo Politico.
After the video went viral on social media, the family of Rajat got angry and reached Pradhan’s house to complain. The family had demanded that Rajat’s friends should also shave their beards so that we can do the same thing with them.
“However, I rejected the proposal of Rajat’s family and said this should not be allowed. They went to the police station and registered a false case of atrocity”, Kumar added.
“Bhim army changed the narrative”
One of the villagers who were present at the site of the incident told us that even after the incident Monty Rana and Rajat used to roam together. But when Monty uploaded the video on social media the local Bhim Army members became active and provoked Rajat’s family to file a case on Monty.
“After two to three days of the incident they were still roaming together but Bhim Army brainwashed the mind of Rajat’s family to file a case on Monty. Other than Monty all the accused were falsely framed. Even the barber was framed to settle political scores”, Manoj said.
“Video was the sole reason”
Gagan who is also residing in the same village said that the video which was uploaded by the accused is the sole reason behind the framed case. “It was the Bhim Army that framed the case to serve their narrative. If the boys hadn’t uploaded the video on social media then it was nothing”, Gagan told NP.
“Now, the friendship is being killed for their narratives. The Bhim Army has damaged the social fabric of our village”, he added.
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