Video of cow beating in India falsely circulated as attack on ISKCON farm in Bangladesh

Rumor Scanner

A video showing three to four individuals brutally attacking a bull has been widely circulated on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook in India, with claims that it depicts Muslims attacking a cow at an ISKCON farm in Bangladesh.

An investigation by Rumor Scanner has confirmed that the claim of an attack on an ISKCON cow farm in Bangladesh is entirely false. The video, based on which the claim has been circulated on social media, is actually from Jalandhar, Punjab, India.

Rumor Scanner published the report on its website on Sunday.

The Rumor Scanner added some samples of X and Facebook posts where claims were made that the incident took place in Bangladesh.

A reverse image search on a keyframe from the viral video led Rumor Scanner to an Instagram post on 14 November 2024, by a user named ‘Vinay Kapoor3930’. According to the post’s caption, the video was filmed at Jamsher Dairy in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. The Hindi post reads, in google English translation: “In Jalandhar’s Jamsher Dairy, some people were beating a cow (bull) very brutally; as soon as we got the video, we reached the spot and complained about it to the police administration so that strict action could be taken against such culprits.”

Similarly, Rumor Scanner found another post on X (formerly Twitter) shared on 19 November, 2024, featuring the same video. In a response to the post, PETA India (an organization dedicated to the ethical treatment of animals) mentioned that an FIR had already been registered by the Sadar Police Station under Section 325 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act.

Rumor Scanner

Rumor Scanner also found a news report on a website named ‘Khabristanpunjabi’ on 27 November, which used snapshots of the viral video in its article’s feature image. According to this report, the incident in the video took place at a dairy farm in Jalandhar, Punjab.

A report by The Tribune on 20 November 2024 also corroborated the incident took place in Punjab and an organisation named Animal Protection Foundation filed a complaint condemning the incident in the viral video. Following the complaint, an FIR under Sections 325 of the BNS and 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, was registered at the Sadar Police Station.

Srisht Bhakshi, head of the Animal Protection Foundation in Jalandhar, who filed a complaint about the incident, told Factly (a fact-checking website in India) that the video shows a bull being brutally beaten by four men at Jamsher Dairy Complex in Jalandhar, Punjab.

Factly reported the police as saying, “In our preliminary investigation, the owner of the dairy farm claimed the video is nearly two years old. The people in the video attacked the bull because it had previously attacked one of the dairy farm workers.”

“To sum up, the video showing a cow being brutally beaten by 3-4 individuals is not from Bangladesh. The video is actually from India and depicts a brutal attack on a bull by unidentified dairy workers at a dairy farm in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Hence, the claim that an ISKCON cow farm in Bangladesh was attacked by Muslims is false,” added Rumor Scanner.