A video (here & here) depicting a police officer slapping an elderly man dressed in saffron attire is circulating on social media. The accompanying claim alleges that a Muslim police officer named Naseem assaulted a Hindu saint, Arumugam, in the Ariyur area of Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district. Let us verify the authenticity of this claim.

Archived post can be seen here.

Claim: Video of a Muslim police officer named Naseem slapping an elderly man in saffron attire in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

Fact: Local authorities have confirmed that the officer in the footage is SSI Narasimhan, who is a Hindu, not a Muslim. He was subsequently reassigned to the Armed Reserve, and a formal departmental investigation regarding his misconduct is ongoing. Hence, the claim circulating in the post is False.

A reverse image search of keyframes extracted from the viral video led us to regional media reports (here, here & here) from Tamil Nadu. According to these reports, on 01 September 2026, a 70-year-old Hindu priest named Arumugam, who was wearing saffron clothing, was standing on the road in Ariyur, Vellore district. During a routine highway patrol near the Golden Temple, Special Sub-Inspector (SSI) Narasimhan slapped the elderly man. As visuals of the incident rapidly spread online, it sparked intense public backlash and drew sharp condemnation from Hindu Munnani activists, who threatened protests unless strict punitive measures were taken. In response to the situation, the District Superintendent of Police swiftly intervened, transferring the concerned officer to the Armed Reserve. An official investigation, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Dhanush Kumar, is currently underway to determine further departmental action regarding the officer’s misconduct.

Furthermore, as the video went viral with a communal narrative alleging that the officer involved was a Muslim named Naseem, the Vellore district police issued a clarification (archive). They stated that the religious identity attributed to the police personnel in the circulating posts is false, urging the public not to give the incident a communal angle. Authorities also cautioned users against sharing inflammatory or misleading content that could disrupt religious harmony. Additionally, the Ariyur police also confirmed to us that Narasimhan is a Hindu, not a Muslim.

To sum it up, the viral video of police misconduct is being circulated with a false communal narrative.