Man slapping co-passenger on IndiGo flight in India was not Hindu

A video claiming that a Hindu man slapped a Muslim co-passenger aboard an IndiGo flight in India has gone viral on social media. Shared amid ongoing controversy over alleged anti-Muslim eviction drives in several Indian states, the video is being circulated with a communal narrative. However, verification by Dismislab found that the man who slapped the passenger is not a follower of Hinduism.

A post from a profile named Khalid Mohammad, which accompanied the video, alleged,
“The boy is a Hafiz-e-Quran (Translation: a person who memorised the whole Quran). His name is Hossain Ahmed, from Latimara, Assam, India. He lost his eyesight due to typhoid. He sold his land and went to Mumbai seeking better treatment. No one from his family could accompany him due to financial hardship. On his return, at Kolkata Airport, a filthy Hindu caused the incident. Hafiz Hossain was groping around looking for his seat. It was one of the seats in the rear. Suddenly, his hand accidentally touched the face of the seated Hindu passenger, Piyush Karmakar. Piyush became furious and at one point slapped the helpless Hossain across the face as if, by being born Hindu, he had an inherent right to lay hands on a Muslim.” The seven-second clip, which was shared along with the post, shows a scene inside the cabin of a flight, where a man is seen slapping another passenger wearing a prayer cap. The video has no audio. So far, it has been shared over 1,800 times, received nearly 1,300 reactions, and has drawn 127 comments.

The same captioned narrative about the in-flight altercation was also shared by the Facebook page ‘Friday Post’, which attached a still image from the video. The text on the image read: “Hussain Ahmed’s only crime was being a Muslim.” The post garnered over 400 shares and more than 2,000 reactions.

The video was also circulated on social media platform X, where multiple users (1, 2) claimed that the man who slapped the passenger was Hindu.

However, verification of the video’s source led Dismislab to a post from Mohammed Zubair, co-founder and manager of Indian fact-checking outlet Alt News. In a post dated August 1, Zubair stated, “The passenger feeling uncomfortable in the flight & wanted to de board. A co-passenger assaulted him, Both belong to the same religious community (Muslim). The accused was handed over to law enforcement agencies for unruly conduct.” He cited Jagriti Chandra as his source. Chandra is an aviation journalist with the Indian newspaper The Hindu. 

On the same day, Chandra confirmed the details via her X account, stating that both the victim and the accused involved in the incident belong to the same religious community.

To gather further details on the incident, Dismislab contacted Jagriti Chandra. Chandra told Dismislab that the information she had shared was obtained through her sources. She also forwarded an official post from the X account of Bidhannagar Police, which had by then publicly disclosed the names of the two individuals involved.

In a thread posted by Bidhannagar Police (1, 2), it stated: “On 01.08.2025, a complaint was received from IndiGo regarding two Indian male passengers who were travelling on flight 6E-138 from Mumbai to Kolkata. During the flight, a heated altercation ensued between the two, following which  (Hafijul Rahaman) slapped the other (Hossain Ahmed Majumder). Passenger declared unruly by the cabin crew of Indigo and handed over to Police. Legal action has been initiated.” IndiGo Airlines also released a statement regarding the incident.

The individual assaulted in the August 1 incident was identified as Hossain Mohammad Majumder. It was his first time flying, and he experienced a panic attack during the flight. When he requested to be offloaded, a commotion ensued. During that time, a fellow passenger named Hafijul Rahaman suddenly slapped him. According to The Hindu, both the assailant and the victim were handed over to airport security and later released on bail. IndiGo further confirmed that the assailant has been banned from all flights operated by the airline for 30 days.

Following the in-flight altercation, Hossain Ahmed Majumder was detained at Kolkata Airport and handed over to the police. Although he was scheduled to board a connecting flight to Silchar, he did not take the flight after being released. Due to the prolonged lack of communication, his family reported him missing to the authorities. Subsequent police investigation led to his location at the Barpeta railway station in Assam, according to multiple Indian news outlets (1, 2, 3).

In summary, the claims that the attacker was Hindu and named Piyush Karmakar are false.

Notably, a recent Reuters report highlighted that in the past few weeks, thousands of homes have been demolished in Assam. Alongside this, Bengali-speaking Muslims across India are increasingly being labeled as “illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh” and subjected to harsh crackdowns, marking one of the most intense eviction drives in recent decades.