Old video from Sri Lanka shared as an incident from Kerala with communal angle

A video of a man killing another person on the street in a broad daylight is now going viral on social media. The victim was attacked by a man wearing a skull cap when he was instructing a truck to park. Few people rushed to the scene and the victim was taken in an autorickshaw. Users are claiming that this is an incident from Kerala where a Muslim man attacked a Hindu.

However, Fact Crescendo found the claim to be false. This is an old incident from Sri Lanka and has no communal angle to it.

What’s the claim?

Sharing the video, a social media user wrote, “This way Jihadists kill Hindus in Kerala and later name it as an accident. If there was no CCTV then there would be no evidence against him. Be careful and remain alert.“

https://archive.org/details/screencast-www_facebook_com-2024_09_29-08_00_30

Facebook | Archive

The same post was viral on twitter as well.

(Twitter Link)

Fact Check-

A Google Reverse Image Search led us to the same video posted by a user on Facebook in 2021. This proves that this is not a recent video. The user had also mentioned that the location of the incident is Galaha, a place in Sri Lanka. Below you can see the post.

After looking at the video, we found that people are speaking in Sinhala and Eelam Tamil language which are spoken in Sri Lanka. So, this also raised our suspicion whether the incident is really from India or not. After this we contacted Fact Crescendo Sri Lanka team, who further contacted Galaha Police Station and spoke to OIC Inspector Rodrigo in the central province of Sri Lanka. He said, “The incident took place within his police jurisdiction and there is no communal angle to it. The accused Muslim man was mentally challenged. He suddenly attacked the person and later he was detained.”

Further, the Sri Lankan team tracked the location of the incident and found that it took place near Vijayaluxmi Stores near Galaha Road, Kandy. Upon contacting the store’s phone number, it was confirmed that the incident took place near the store.

Below you can see the spot where the incident took place.

Conclusion:

Fact Crescendo found the claim to be false. The viral video is of an old incident from Sri Lanka and not from Kerala. According to police there is no communal angle to it. The accused was a mentally challenged person and was arrested after the incident.