A collage of three images is being widely shared on social media. Two images show a man being assaulted on a road and the third image is of four persons behind bars.
Those sharing the collage claim that it shows a Muslim man named Sahil being beaten to death in Kapur, Uttar Pradesh, and the ones arrested are responsible for his death.
A social media user shared the collage and wrote, “Uttar Pradesh: A Muslim youth named Sahil was beaten to death with a stick in the middle of the road in Kanpur. Sahil’s sister Muskan was a witness in a case, and she was supposed to testify on September 24. When Vivek, Vikram and Vinay threatened them, Sahil and Muskan complained to the police and demanded protection. However, the three dragged Sahil out of his house and killed him.” (Translated from Hindi)
SouthCheck found that the claim was false. The full name of the victim is Sahil Paswan and he is a Hindu.
On searching with relevant keywords, we found a report published by Dainik Jagran on September 21, 2024. The report contained an image which was similar to the video screenshot in the viral collage.
The report stated that the brothers of a history-sheeter killed a boy named Sahil by assaulting him on the road. Muskaan, the sister of the deceased had to give a statement against the goons, who wanted to stop her from doing so and they ended up assaulting her brother leading to his death. The sister filed a complaint against the five men at Govind Nagar police station after the incident. The report also stated the two people were arrested in the incident until then.
The incident was also reported by Aaj Tak on September 22. According to the report, Muskan said that old enmity among the groups was the reason behind the assault.
Neither report identified Sahil as a Muslim.
Using these clues, we found that the police commissionerate of Kanpur also tweeted about the incident on September 20.
In the tweet, the Kanpur shared an update about the Govind Nagar murder case where they mentioned the victim’s full name as Sahil Paswan, son of late Laalta Prasad. The names of the victim and his father confirmed that they are from the Hindu community.
The police also named the accused as Vikram, Vivek, Vinay, Akshay and Vishal, who are also Hindus. Hence, we conclude that the claim is false as the victim and the accused are from the Hindu community.
