Viral video: Imposter ‘Naga Sadhu’ not thrashed by Muslims

NEW DELHI: A video being floating on social media on September 2 with claims that Muslim man is thrashing an alleged Naga Sadhu is fake and baseless, clarified Dehradun Police.

In the morning of September 2, a twitter handle @Imamofpeace tweeted, “Islamic Extremists in India beating up a poor and elderly Indian beggar. I truly wish this Islamist criminal is arrested soon. @narendramodi.”

The video widely circulated was retweeted over 3,300 times.

As per investigation by AltNews, it was found that the man in the video is NOT an actual Naga Sadhu and he was not beaten up by Muslim youth.

The actual event happened in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun on 24th August 2018. SHO of Patel Nagar, Dehradun who told AltNews, that the context and narrative were misleading and fake.

“The man who was beaten up is not a Naga Sadhu, but a beggar. He is married and has six children. He went to a house to beg for food and molested the woman who brought him tea and biscuits.”

The SHO further stated that the man impersonated a beggar was allegedly drunk, misbehaving with a woman was beaten up by the woman’s brother, who was not Muslim but belonged to a Hindu family.

Dehradun police on its official Twitter handle put out a statement clarifying that claims. “The man is an imposter against whom a complaint has been filed for molesting a woman while being intoxicated.”

The police tweeted another clarification stating, “Sushil Nath is an addict who has been involved in such cases in the past as well. On 24.08.2018, he entered a house and molested a woman, following which he was beaten up by the woman’s brother Shubham and other locals.”

Among those who retweeted the video with the additional claim includes Bollywood actor Koena Mitra. The now-deleted tweet of Mitra said, “He is a Naga Sadhu. This happens in our country everyday.”

Annant Srivastava, the founder of a website called Bharat Herald that regularly posts pro-BJP articles, reported AltNews.

My Nation editor Abhijit Majumder, columnist Shefali Vaidya, and many other anonymous handles retweeted the fake video.

The imposter was arrested and a criminal case has been filed against him.