Fact Check: 2-year-old incident of mob lynching in Gujarat passed off as recent one
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the incident is true but it happened two years ago. It seems Swara Bhasker also shared the article of October 2017, assuming it to be a recent one.
Amid the ongoing Navratri celebrations across the country, a post has gone viral on social media claiming that a Dalit man was beaten to death for watching garba dance in Gujarat.
THE VIRAL POST
Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker also shared an India Today article carrying the same piece of information as mentioned in the viral post.
AFWA PROBES
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the incident is true but it happened two years ago. It seems Swara also shared the article of October 2017, assuming it to be a recent one.
Many Facebook pages such as 'Indian DemoCrazy' shared this post.
Swara's tweet has been retweeted more than 1,500 times and liked by over 3,700 users. The tweet has been deleted now. Later, when people pointed out that the article is old, Swara clarified that she hadn't seen the date while reading and sharing the article.
Pls note : this is a news article (ironically) from 2nd October 2017.. I hadn't seen the date when I read the article. My bad! Still pretty shitty though ! Are the perpetrators behind bars??? https://t.co/etjyrBuj7o Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) October 4, 2019
THE INCIDENT
A simple Google search, using keywords, revealed that the incident is two years old. According to reports, on October 1, 2017, a 21-year-old Dalit youth -- Jayesh Solanki -- was allegedly beaten to death by a group of men from the upper caste community for attending a garba event in Anand district of Gujarat.
According to the police, the accused said Dalits don't have any right to watch garba. Jayesh and his cousin were allegedly thrashed by some upper caste men. The incident was covered by several media organisations at that time. A report by The Indian Express said all the eight accused were arrested in the incident.
THE CONCLUSION
We scanned the internet thoroughly but couldn't find any lastest news report related to such type of incident.
It is, therefore, clear that the two-year-old incident from Gujarat has resurfaced on social media just to mislead people.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com