An old video of Sadhus being attacked in West Bengal goes viral with misleading claims

This video depicts an incident that occurred in West Bengal in January 2024, during which the Sadhus faced attacks on suspicion of kidnapping.

A video of a mob beating up sadhus is going viral on social media with the claim that they were attacked for placing a hidden camera in a women’s changing room of the temple in Uttar Pradesh. The video shows men dressed in saffron dress being beaten up by a mob.

Let’s check the truth

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation with a reverse image search on Google with the key frames of the video and the results led us to a news about this incident on Times Now’s YouTube channel. As per the report, sadhus were attacked and purportedly seen being stripped and assaulted by a mob in West Bengal.

According to the news reports, this video is of a mob beating up some sadhus in Purulia, West Bengal in January 2024. These sadhus had come to Purulia, Bengal on 13 January, 2024 to take a dip in Ganga. When they asked some girls from their vehicle for directions to Ganga Sagar, there was some misunderstanding. The girls screamed in fear and ran away from there. The West Bengal Police said in this news that the mob attacked them, believing that they were trying to kidnap these children.

The same thing is clear from the news published by India Today and The New Indian Express . This incident has nothing to do with Uttar Pradesh.

We also checked if there are any reports of hidden cameras being installed in Uttar Pradesh. A similar incident has taken place in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh in May last year. As per Aaj Tak report, on 26 May, 2024, a case was registered against Mahant Mukesh Giri for installing a camera in a room reserved for women to change clothes near the ghats built on the Ganga Canal where devotees bathe. 

A woman and her daughter visited the temple’s washroom on 21 May, 2024, after taking a bath in the canal. That’s when they stumbled across a CCTV camera. The report states that the accused secretly installed a CCTV camera and used to watch the videos live by connecting it directly to his mobile phone.

According to the Hindustan Times news , when the mother and daughter asked the priest of the temple about this incident, he insulted them and threatened them.     

After the woman informed the police about the incident, the police arrested this priest named Mukesh Goswami. A case was registered against him under sections 354, 354C, 506, 504 of the IPC. So, this incident is different and there is no connection between the footage. 

Taking account of the evidences, we can understand that the incident seen in the footage took place in Bengal in January 2024.  

Conclusion- 

Fact crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. This video depicts an incident that occurred in West Bengal in January 2024, during which the sadhus faced attacks on suspicion of kidnapping.