Communal Spin: Video of man with severed head wrongly shared

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Oct 03, 2018 : As per the news reports two gory videos showing a man carry a severed head to a police station in Karnataka is being shared on Facebook with a false narrative that a Hindu man beheaded a Muslim for eloping with his daughter in Tamil Nadu.

 

The shocking surrender captured on video happened on 29 September 2018 in Karnataka’s Mandya district where a quarrel between two men turned violent after one of them allegedly said something disrespectful about the other’s mother.

Both victim and attacker belong to the Lingayat community, local police have told BOOM. News reports state it is the third beheading in a month (September) in Karnataka. The incident was widely reported last week. (Read here, here and here)

A Facebook group called “I Support R.S.S में अपने 100 मित्रों को जोड़ें” (Rashtriya Swamyamsevak Sangh ) posted the video on 2 October 2018 with a Hindi caption that lauded the actions of the attacker. While the post is now deleted an archived version of it can be accessed here. BOOM has chosen not to embed the videos in this story.

The text of the post loosely translates as ‘Ramu Ram beheaded the Muslim youth who had eloped with his daughter. The incident is from Tamil Nadu, brothers. Earlier, a Hindu brother Shambhunath (Shambhulal Regar) had done the same. For both of them, a hearty Jai Shree Ram! A day will come when every Hindu will have to do this for their sisters and daughters. Thus, we request you brothers to be alert and share this video with other Hindu brethren.

The post also refers to Shambhulal Regar from Rajasthan who is currently in prison for hacking a Muslim labourer to death in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand in December 2017.

The two-part video shows a man wearing a blood-sprayed shirt carrying a severed head into a police station following which he sits at the entrance of the chowki and talks to police personnel in Kannada.

BOOM was able to check the name of police station from the sign board visible in the video and found that it is the Malavalli Town police station in Mandya district in Karnataka.

In the first video at 00:16 seconds the man can be heard saying, “Pashupati” when a plainclothes policeman asks him his name. Further in the video, at 1:15 minutes, when another plainclothes policeman asks him where he is from, the man replies, “Chikk Abbagilu”. The policeman then asks him what is the name of the beheaded man to which replies, “Girish” and then adds, “He used to (verbally) abuse my mother.”