2015 video falsely shared as police thrashing youths for harassing women on Raksha Bandhan

What is the claim?

A video of two men being nabbed by police personnel is doing the rounds on social media with the claim that the police in the Indian state of Gujarat recently thrashed two Muslims for misbehaving with a Hindu girl on Raksha Bhandan—a Hindu festival typically celebrated in the month of August when sisters tie an amulet (rakhi) to their brothers. 

One post on Facebook shared the video with the caption, “Video…A Muslim Jihadi was seen harassing Hindu girls on the occasion of Rakshabandhan. Gujarat police gave on-the-spot treatment to this Jihadi (translated from Kannada).” Posts sharing the same communal narrative and slurs were shared on other platforms as well. Archives of such posts can be found here, here and here.

Screenshot of the posts claiming that two alleged molesters were thrashed by Gujarat police on Raksha Bandhan. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this video is old and has nothing to do with Raksha Bandan.

What did we find?

We conducted a simple reverse image search using multiple keyframes from the viral video and came across several videos of news reports dating back to December 2015. English media outlet NewsX had shared similar visuals ( a zoomed-in version of the viral clip) its YouTube channel  on December 10, 2015, with the title, “Eve Teaser tied to a car and beaten up in Surat, Gujarat.” In the video, we can see two young men made to lie down on a car bonnet and thrashed by a police official and a man in civil clothes. 

Another video report on the incident shared by India Today on YouTube on December 9, 2015, also shared the same visuals. The news anchor noted that the police in Surat, Gujarat, thrashed "two alleged eve-teasers." 

Screenshot of the India Today video report showing policemen thrashing two men in Surat in 2015. (Source: Screenshot/YouTube/India Today)

Another video report by ABP News on YouTube, dated December 9, 2015, carried the same visuals. The report noted that the two men holding the alleged molesters were police personnel and that the incident took place in the Limbayat area of Surat. The video report questioned the act of police thrashing two men publicly. The report identified the two accused as Nadeem and Kadir. 

In 2015, Raksha Bandhan was celebrated on August 29, and the incident took place in December same year, establishing that it has no connection with the festival.

Evidently, the viral video is an old incident and is unrelated to Raksha Bandhan, which was celebrated on August 30 this year.

The verdict

The viral clip is of Gujarat’s Surat police thrashing two men in December 2015. This video is old and has nothing to do with Raksha Bandhan. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.