A video of a naked, handcuffed man being beaten up is viral on social media currently, with the claim that he is Mohammed Sharif, the station master and main accused in the Balasore train accident case. Users have also claimed that Sharif was hiding in a madrasa in West Bengal, from where he was arrested by the CBI. Alt News received several fact-check requests for the video on its WhatsApp helpline.
Users have also shared this video on Facebook with the same claim.
The video is also viral on Twitter with the same claim. (Archive)
The first thing to notice in this video is that a man can be heard counting down the beatings in the background. He can be heard saying “…cinco, cuatro, tres..” which is Spanish for “….five, four, three…”. This indicates that the video was not shot in India.
Upon a reverse image search of a key-frame the video, we found several instances of the viral video on Reddit, under the r/NarcoFootage subreddit. One of those instances shows that the video was uploaded two years ago, and another shows that it was uploaded one year ago. The titles of both videos suggest that the man in the video was a thief who was being beaten up by a cartel.
We found a longer version of the video which contains a conversation between the handcuffed man and others present in the room, in Spanish. We will refrain from hyperlinking the video, owing to the nature of the website. The man was asked, “Why did we hit you with the board?” to which he replied, “Because I...
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