The attack on a man living in quarantine in Banke by three local volunteers on Wednesday was the result of an internal dispute at the facility over the day’s lunch, and not a instance of caste-related violence as portrayed on social media, police have said.

On Wednesday, Karna Bahadur Saru Magar was attacked with a steel rod by three men volunteering at the quarantine facility.

Magar, who was living in quarantine with his wife after returning from India, had gotten into a fight with the volunteers after people in quarantine were served different lunches.

“The fight broke out after some people in quarantine did not get noodles for lunch,” said Superintendent Bir Bahadur Oli, chief of the  Banke District Police Office.

“The three volunteers attacked Magar after he berated them for the disparity in lunch," said Oli.

Magar sustained serious injuries to his head and was rushed to the Bheri Hospital in Nepalgunj. He was brought back to the quarantine facility after treatment.

Police said the three men who attacked Magar - Shiva BK, Bhim Bahadur Sunar and Niraj Sunar - are at large.

Misinformation about the incident had spread on social media, portraying Magar as a Dalit who was beaten for touching the cooking stove. 

Deepak Magar, Karna Bahadur’s brother-in-law, confirmed that the whole incident was over lunch.

“I was shocked when I saw the social media claiming that the injured person was a Dalit and he was attacked for entering the kitchen,” said Deepak.

The social media posts come at a time of heightened sensitivity for caste-related violence, with two recent cases of Dalits getting killed by other castes. Most recently, six men in Rukum (West), four of them Dalits, were killed during a marriage dispute with a different caste family.