A video showing several women assaulting a man with sticks and bricks on the side of the road has gone viral on social media. The video is shared with users claiming the man was a Muslim who was attacked for allegedly sexually assaulting a Hindu girl multiple times.

A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “A Mu$Iim man was caught r@ping a Hîndu minor girl. Local women b€at him until he was deaf. I Stand with these brave women. (sic)”

SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral video is old and from February 2021. It shows a brawl over road-widening in Sarwal village, Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh.

On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by the screenshot of the viral video was shared by News 18 Hindi on February 20, 2021. According to the report, the video was from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh and shows a group of women assaulting a landowner with stones and bricks during a dispute over road widening. The incident occurred in Sarwal village in February 2021 after the man objected to construction work, and FIRs were filed by both sides.

The report further suggests that the road in question, which passed through Sarwal village, was narrow. Women belonging to the local Mahila Mandal (women’s collective) began work to widen the road. However, the man whose land was being used objected to this and got into an argument with the women. The argument escalated into a physical fight, with the women attacking the man with sticks and bricks

We further found that the video was also shared by the YouTube channel, Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal, on February 20, 2021. The video was shared with a caption that reads, “Road dispute erupts in Himachal's Mandi, with both groups baying for each other’s blood.”

Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.