Recently, several social media started sharing posts claiming that in Haryana, a man's hand was chopped because as '786' written on his tattooed on his hand. 

A Twitter user named Ashrar Ali wrote, "Muslims ki lynching, isn't it kaafi for brightness of future, like recently in panipat 'Akhlque salmani' attacked by Hindi mob who cut his right arm cause '786' written on it. His hand was cut of with chainsaw after requesting drinking of water. And many more they hv done."

Another user shared few pictures of an injured man saying, "A Muslim barber’s arm was sawn off in Haryana His crime in the eyes of the mob was that he had 786 tattooed on his hand."

Many other Twitter users made the same claim while sharing a report on the incident by a website named Twocirlcles.net. The report quoted Akhlaq's brother stating that on August 23, a 28-year-old man named Akhalaq who is a barber by profession was brutally thrashed by two men after they got to name his name.

The same message is also viral on Facebook with the same claim. 

The truth behind the claim 

The posts viral on social media are misleading. Two FIRs have been registered in this case. 

A top Panipat police officer said the initial investigation indicates the 28-year-old Akhlaq had sodomized a child and might have injured himself while trying to escape. Panipat ACP Satish Kumar Vats also disapproved of the “absolutely absurd” “communal angle” being given to the incident on social media.

On August 23, Akhlaq was found by GRP by the railway tracks the following morning. Based on his brother’s statement, GRP lodged an FIR and transferred the probe to local police. The incident took place in Panipat, Haryana. 

According to a report by The Quint, Chandni Bagh police station SHO Inspector Ankit Nadal who was investigating both the FIR explained the alleged sequence of events, he said, “On 24 August night, Akhlaq tried to enter a home from the back entrance. The family was sleeping in the verandah. There was a child who was seven years old, who he picked and left. Their home was adjacent to the railway line. The moment they realised that he was not there, they began searching for him. While doing so they reached a park close by in Kishanpura, where they heard a child making sounds. This is when they saw Akhlaq and that child barely had any clothes on them. They then confronted Akhlaq, asked him questions and beat him up at the park itself.”

Akhlaq then ran away to the railway track, and the family took their son and brought him back home, he added.

“The next day the railway police got to know that there was a man who was lying on the line and his hand was severed. They then hospitalised him. For days, due to his injuries, he was unfit to register a complaint. Then on 7 September, an FIR was registered on his complaint,” Nandal said.

However, Akhalaq's old brother says that he had left for Panipat via bus on 23 August morning. While Akhlaq was a barber back home, there was no work on account of the pandemic. “Our work, as I am also a barber, has been affected horribly. People are most afraid to come close to people. He did not know anyone there but there is more work there than here,” he said. 

He explained that around 2:00 am in the morning his brother felt thirsty and went to a home close to the tracks asking for water. This is when he allegedly learned that the house he had gone to was the one with the same people who had beaten him up hours ago. “Upon recognising him, they pulled my brother in and started beating him up. They hit him with bricks as well. While doing this they saw 786 tattooed on his hand and then cut his arms elbow down with a chainsaw. They were kattar (orthodox) Hindus who do not want Muslims to live in Hindustan anymore.”(786 is a number that is used as a metonym for the Arabic phrase Bismillah, meaning, in the name of Allah)

The next morning he was spotted next to the tracks, taken to a hospital in Panipat from where he was referred to BD Sharma Institute of Medical Sciences. His discharge slip from 8 September reads ‘traumatic amputation below the elbow’ in front of ‘diagnosis’.4

FIR against Akhlaq

On the basis of a complaint by the child’s family, an FIR was registered at the same police station (details withheld to protect child’s identity) against the 28-year-old for allegedly kidnapping and sexually assaulting the seven-year-old. According to the family, they rescued the child and caught Akhlaq, but the latter managed to escape. The child, his uncle said, broke two of his teeth and there were marks of assault on his body.

The boy's mouth was swollen and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. When the FIR was registered, Singh also submitted the medical certificate of the boy from his visit to the hospital on 27 August. He had four injuries in total.

Akhlaq's brother denies charges

Ikram confirmed that he met the family of the child in Panipat, who explained to him what had happened on the spot. “They told me that they found their son with my brother and that the child was seen under him.” He, however, denies the allegations of his brother sexually assaulting a child and does not believe them. 

An FIR has also been lodged at Thana Chandni Bagh in Panipat. “This is a case of kattarpanthi, they cut off his hand because 786 was written on his hand,” Ikram said.

The case is still under probe. However, police have clearly disapproved of the “absolutely absurd” “communal angle” being given to the incident on social media.

Not the first instance

This is not the first time when the victim or victim's relative has tried to add a false communal angle. Last year, we reported several cases where there was a deliberate attempt to show that hate crime against Muslims (minority) had increased since BJP led NDA government under PM Modi won the 2019 Loksabha election. You can read our detailed analysis here

Minorities in India bear the brunt of post-election hate crimes: An attempt of fake narrative by the ecosystem

Similarly, several false cases were reported where it was falsely claimed that the victim was beaten for not chanting 'Jai Shri Ram'. You can read it in detail here:

Jai Shri Ram slogan has become a war-cry: fake cases have amplified the perception of religious intolerance