Muslims are regularly targeted by misinformation spread online in Hindu-majority India. In the latest case, footage made the rounds on Facebook and X as a mechanic with an Islamic name purportedly vandalising motorcycles to drive business to his repair shop. The man in the video, who in fact identified himself as a Hindu, is a tutor who said he slashed vehicles’ seats and tyres because he was angry with drivers parking outside his tuition centre.
“Mohammad Junaid was seen tearing the seats of vehicles parked on the roadside with a blender,” read an X post that shared the video on December 23, racking up more than 2.3 million views.
“To expand his business, he punctures vehicles & tears seats.”
The video shows a man slashing motorcycle seats with a knife and puncturing a truck’s tyres.
Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on January 7, 2025
The video circulated on X and Facebook, prompting a flurry of Islamophobic comments.
“This is one of the main reasons people should STOP buying from a particular community involved in such malpractices to gain business. Then they talk about haram (forbidden in Islam),” read one comment.
“All they do is destroy. No moral values of any kind,” another said.
India is a majority Hindu country and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s nationalist rhetoric has left the Muslim minority of more than 220 million fearful for their future (archived link).
Angry tutor
The video shared online features the watermark “Uttarakhand Exclusive” — the name of an Instagram page (archived link).
AFP reached out to the page’s manager Gaurav Wasudev, who confirmed the video was originally published on his page in August and later deleted.
He identified the man in the footage as a teacher in northern India who vandalised vehicles parked outside his tuition centre.
“The incident in the video is from Dobhal Chowk in the Nehrugram area in Dehradun, Uttarakhand and the person in the video is a teacher named Dheeraj Aggarwal,” he said.
“He was angry with people parking their vehicles outside his tuition centre and used a cutter to vandalise them.”
AFP confirmed the video was filmed in Dobhal Chowk by comparing it to Google Street View images from the area (archived link).
Screenshot comparison between a scene from the false post (left) and an image of the area on Google Street View (right) with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP
Meanwhile, Aggarwal confirmed to AFP that he was the man in the video.
“The area around my tuition centre is a market in Nehrugram. People would often park their vehicles in and around the stores the whole day while visiting the market, making it difficult for the students to walk on the road safely,” he said.
“I thought of vandalising the seat covers of some vehicles parked in front of my centre to teach them a lesson.”
He added that he was Hindu, not Muslim.
Pradeep Negi, a station officer at the local Raipur police post, identified the man in the video as Aggarwal and said he was fined by officers who attended the scene.
