Old video from an Indonesian school shared as an incident from India

The video shows an incident that occurred in a school in Indonesia in February 2020.

Recently in the Khubbapur village in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, a case was filed against a private school teacher who is accused of instructing children to strike a Muslim classmate who is seven years old. Teacher is shown in a viral video asking kids lining up to punch their crying classmate to hit him harder while making fun of his religion.

On this backdrop, a disturbing video of three boys assaulting and bullying a hijab-wearing classmate has gone viral on social media, claiming that it shows a Muslim student being mistreated by classmates in India. The post has even tagged Chennai police and politicians from Tamil Nadu.

In the 29-second video, we can see a group of three boys kicking and beating a girl wearing a hijab inside a classroom. The girl is seen crying and sobbing, hiding her face under the desk.

The caption of the viral post states, “Share this video till the Management of school comes to know, some students in classroom beating a Muslim student. 

@chennaipolice_@Anbil_Mahesh@KPonmudiMLA@Iyankarthikeyan

@mkstalin@KanimozhiDMK”

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The same post has gone viral on Facebook as well.

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Fact Check- 

 A reverse image search on Google revealed that the viral video was from 2020. We found a news report by an Indonesian news organisation, TribunNews, published on 13 February 2020. According to the report the incident took place at Muhammadiya Need Middle School in Purworejo, Indonesia (SMP Muhammadiya Butuh Purworejo), where a girl studying in the eighth standard was bullied and hit by three male classmates. In another report TribunNews mentioned that the three perpetrators had been questioned and arrested by the police.

The incident was also covered by other Indonesian media organisations.

In further search we found an article from ‘Liramedia’ published on 14 February, 2020 regarding the same incident from Indonesia. As per report at least eight people have been questioned, consisting of five witnesses and three suspects. The victim, who is a student with special needs, was previously abused by 3 students by hitting her with their hands, hitting her with a broom, kicking her, and insulting her. The three suspects were charged under Article 80 of the child protection law with a penalty of 3.5 years.

Conclusion- 

Fact crescendo found that the viral video of students in a classroom beating a Muslim student is not from India. The video shows an incident that occurred in a school in Indonesia in February 2020.