Recently, a video is being widely shared on social media platforms an angry mob thrashing a man claiming that it shows a people beating up a kidnapper in Salem, Tamil Nadu in front of police. 

A Facebook user shared the video with a caption that can be roughly translated to, "Four hundred people have come from foreign states to kidnap small children in Salem. Among them, only one has been caught. People around them have justified the person caught and handed over to the police by giving him a beating. Please share this video."

Several other Facebook users are also sharing the video with the same caption. 

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found this claim to be false. The viral video shows an incident from 2019 showing people thrashing a man who under the influence of alcohol tried to kidnap a school-going girl at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. 

With the help of reverse image search using the keyframes of the video, we found the video being carried in a news report on a Tamil One India website. According to the report dated February 21, 2019, a miscreant under the influence of alcohol tried to abduct a school-going girl at Thanjavur’s old bus stand. However, people who were present at the scene caught and thrashed him. He was later handed over to the police.

Several other regional news portals reported the incident stating that the is from at Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur old bus stand. 

Moreover, we did not find any recent credible media report making the same claim as in the viral post. 

In conclusion, an old unrelated video from Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur is being shared with a false claim that '400 kidnappers have entered Tamil Nadu's Salem.'