Muslim mob did not attack Hindus in Hyderabad, clash given false communal spin

(Trigger Warning: This story contains descriptions of distressing visuals and mentions of assault and casteist abuse. Reader discretion is advised.)

What is the claim?

Advocate Neelam Bhargav Ram, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) legal cell in Hyderabad, shared several posts on X (formerly Twitter). These posts included videos claiming to show an incident in Borabanda, Hyderabad, Telangana. According to Ram, on the night of January 14, 2024, a Muslim mob attacked Hindu families with rods and stones.

The shared content includes a nighttime video of a clash on the street, CCTV footage of the incident, and photos of injured individuals. Ram alleged that the violence stemmed from a conflict between some members of the Muslim community and a Hindu Dalit student, escalating to the attack on families. The post garnered over 275,000 views at the time of this fact-check. Archives of this and related posts are available here and here.

Screenshot of the viral social media post. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the incident in the videos lacks a communal angle, as the First Information Report (FIR) includes both Hindus and Muslims among the accused.

What did we find?

We searched for news reports about the incident using relevant keywords. A report by ETV Bharat Telugu, dated January 15, 2024, titled “Scuffle among youth under the influence of alcohol - locality under fear,” featured similar videos to those in the viral post. According to the report, youths from various groups, allegedly inebriated, fought using sticks and stones on January 14, 2024, in Hyderabad's Harinagar area of Borbanada. The report does not suggest any communal motive.

We accessed two FIRs filed at the Sanathnagar police station regarding the incident. The first FIR, filed by B Jayanth Dharma Teja, describes a confrontation beginning when Dharma Teja and a friend went to buy a kite on January 14, 2024. They encountered two men, Rahul and Abbad, who accused Teja's friend of spitting at their bikes. The altercation escalated, and by evening, Rahul and Abbas, along with friends (including both Hindus and Muslims), attacked Dharma Teja and his friends at his aunt's house. The FIR lists Rahul, Abbas, Jai, Nikhil, Imran, and others as accused. This contradicts Ram's claim of an exclusively Muslim attack on Hindus.

Screenshot of the FIR listing the accused's names. (Source: tspolice.gov.in)

Logically Facts spoke to the complainant, Jayanth Dharma Teja, who stated that most attackers were locals known to him and his family. He denied any communal aspect to the incident, noting that most attackers were Hindus. Teja added, “The mob, mainly from a Backward Classes (BC) community, used casteist slurs against us.” He identified himself as belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, the administrative term for Dalits.

According to the FIR, the accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including voluntarily causing hurt, voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons, criminal intimidation, and under various sections of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, including intimidating a person to belonging to SC/ST community, causing hurt to a member of these communities.

Logically Facts also contacted the Sanathnagar Police Station. Circle Inspector A Purender Reddy confirmed the attackers were inebriated but refuted any communal angle, as both Hindus and Muslims were involved. He reported that eight individuals were accused, with both Hindus and Muslims among them, and four had been arrested.

The second FIR, filed by the other party in the incident, alleges injuries from the scuffle. The police registered a case against an 'unknown person' under the IPC for voluntarily causing hurt.

The verdict

The incident in Hyderabad involving a scuffle between two parties, with both Muslim and Hindu accused, was misrepresented with communal claims. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.