Recently, a disturbing video is being widely circulated on social media in which a man is forced to lick his spit from the bonnet of a vehicle with a communal claim that the man is being beaten by a Hindu and forced to lick his spit to break the Ramzan fast. The video is being linked to the recently concluded month of Ramzan, when Muslims across the country, fast for a month leading up to the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr.

A Twitter user shared the video saying, "A #Muslim man being forced to lick a #Hindu's spit. Most probably to break his Ramadan fast. Vehicle's windshield reveals that the incident is from #Surat."

This video has been reshared over 300 times. You can watch the video here:

This video is being widely shared on Twitter. 

The same video was shared by a user on Facebook with a caption, "It appears, this incident took place in Surat, Gujarat, a few days ago, during the month of Ramadaan. In this video, a youth is found beating a Muslim man and forcing him to do sit-ups, holding his ears. The young man appears to be a Hindu. It’s not clear why exactly the Hindu youth attacked the Muslim man. But, we can figure out from the video that the moment the youth finds that the man is Muslim and is on Ramadaan fast, he turns more violent. The youth spits on the bonnet of a car and forces the Muslim man to lick it, apparently to humiliate and force him to break his Ramadaan fast halfway. A friend from Gujarat informs that the youth is Hindu and happens to be a driver of a private car hired by the Surat Municipal Corporation. It is quite easy for the police to track down the driver and take strict legal action against him if they want. But in India police often do not act against the perpetrators, in the case of such communal incidents. So, such incidents keep recurring."

In the viral video, one can see a man violently pushing and hitting another man who pleads with him to let him go. After this, the man beating him spits on the bonnet of a parked vehicle and forces him to lick the same.

The truth behind the claim

With the help of relevant keywords search, we found a news report by Gujrati wing of ABP News, ABP Asmita which was broadcasted on April 8, 2020. According to this report, the incident took place in Limbayat area of Surat, Gujarat. The accused is identified as Salman who is yet to be arrested. 

According to a news report on Divya Bhaskar dated April 8, 2020, Salman slapped the victim and behaved in a thuggish manner as he didn’t want him to testify against a person named Ramzan. The report also said that Limbayat police inspector VM Makwana stated that a complaint would be lodged against the accused.

According to a Boomlive report,  Makwana, Police Inspector confirmed the video and said the incident is from April 6, 2020, and that the arrested accused has been identified as Salman Jan Mohammad Ansari (23) and the victim as Aslam Abdul Salam Ansari (25). He added that the video which is since viral was recorded by a minor accompanying the accused.

The police confirmed that both the accused and victim in the case are both Muslims and that the incident is not communal in nature.

Moreover, the Ramzan month started on April 24, 2020. This is way after the incident was reported.

In conclusion, a video showing an incident occurred because of personal enmity from Surat is being shared with a false claim of a Muslim man being forced to lick spit of a Hindu man.