Muzaffarnagar: Two-year-old video fuels riots, cops probe MLA who shared it

The Uttar Pradesh police is probing the role played by a video that went viral in fuelling riots in Muzaffarnagar district. Following violence over the weekend, the Army is conducting flag marches in the district. So far, 27 people have died in the rioting.

IG Crime Ashish Gupta told reporters in Lucknow that some unscrupulous elements were using social networking sites and SMSes to spread rumours to create tension.

"A video is also being circulated through Facebook and other networking sites to create tension. I want to tell you that the said video is probably over two years old and is of some other country. I appeal to people that they should not pay heed to it," Gupta told PTI.

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Gupta said that Facebook and YouTube were being used to spread the video which showed two people being lynched to death by a mob. The video seems to have angered both communities.

According to an Indian Express report, police are telling the people that the video clip is fake. It is being alleged that the video is of two youths who were beaten to death by locals on 27 August after they had killed a youth from the minority community. Reports say that the duo had killed the boy as he was harassing their sister.

Investigators are currently trying to assure locals that the YouTube video being shared is not linked to the August 27 incident.

The Indian Express report also says a person named Shivam Kumar downloaded the video from YouTube and later shared it on Facebook. The report adds that the video was also shared by BJP MLA from Sardhana in Meerut, Sangeet Singh Som. 

"The police registered an FIR against the MLA, Shivam Kumar and 229 unidentified persons for sharing the video," says the report.

During last year's riots in the North-East too, social media and fake videos that had gone viral were blamed for some of the panic.