Old video of man whipping his wife in public goes viral with false communal claim

An old video showing disturbing images of a woman being flogged by a man in public and surrounded by onlookers is going viral on the Internet with the false and widespread claim that it shows a woman being beaten in public in India, because she complained of rape under Sharia law.

BOOM noted that the incident took place in Bulandshahr district in 2018 when a Hindu, Saudan Singh, publicly lashed his wife for allegedly having an affair and eloping with another man.

The viral video shows images of a crowd watching a man beat a woman with a belt after tying her to a tree.

Trigger Warning: The video contains disturbing images. Viewer discretion is advised.

The video is shared with the caption: “According to Sharia law, raping a woman is considered as extramarital sex and it must be punished. In most Sharia countries, women are stoned if they report being raped.” So the person in the video was “lucky” because he only got whipped.”

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Fact check

BOOM noted that the video is from 2018 and from Uttar Pradesh.

We removed key frames from the video, performed a reverse image search using Google Lens, and found several news articles from 2018 that included screenshots of the footage.

According to the reports, the incident took place in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh where a man beat his wife for allegedly having an affair.

On March 23, 2018, Deccan Chronicle, with a screenshot from the video, reported that a village panchayat in Bulandshahr district, Uttar Pradesh, ordered the beating of a woman on March 10 on suspicion of having an affair with her. The report also mentioned that local police confirmed that the incident occurred on March 10 in Longa village in Syana region of Bulandshahr.

However, the report added that it only came to public knowledge on March 15 after the video went viral on social media and an FIR was subsequently lodged against seven men and a dozen unknown persons.

Another Times of India article dated March 23, 2018 reported the victim's statement in the complaint about the incident.

The article mentioned that the woman stated in her complaint, “I had gone with our neighbor, but after five days, some villagers took us back to the village on March 10 and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m Hands tied.” Some protested, but no one came forward to save me. Later, some village men took me to our house and molested me. The former pradhan even made a video of my humiliation and I was asked to keep quiet about the whole thing or else I would be killed.

After the incident, the then Superintendent of Police (SP) of Bulandshahr said that the police arrested former Pradhan Shersingh, his son Shravan and the woman's husband Shaudan Singh under relevant IPC sections, adding that the Police have contacted the woman to file a complaint, The Hindu reported.