A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows police officers in uniform beating individuals with lathis and parading them. The post claims that the Sarupganj and Aburoad police in Rajasthan thrashed members of Anop Mandal for raising slogans against the Jain community. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: Video shows Sarupganj and Aburoad police in Rajasthan beating members of Anop Mandal for raising slogans against the Jain community.
Fact: The video is from an anti-crime drive conducted by Indore police in May 2015, where a few persons were arrested, publicly paraded, and thrashed with lathis. We found no credible media reports of Rajasthan police beating Anop Mandal members for raising slogans against the Jain community. The viral video is unrelated to Rajasthan. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we conducted a Google keyword search to find out if Rajasthan police beat members of Anop Mandal for raising slogans against the Jain community but found no credible media reports supporting this claim.
Upon research, we found (here, here, and here) that Anoop Mandal is a sect based in Rajasthan, known for its anti-Jain beliefs and conspiracy theories. The group originated in Rajasthan and has gradually expanded into rural areas of the state and neighbouring regions in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
To verify the viral video, we performed a reverse image search of its keyframes, which led us to a news report published on the ABP News YouTube channel on 29 May 2015. The report featured clips from the same video. According to the report, the video shows Indore police conducting an anti-crime drive in May 2015, where a few persons were arrested, publicly paraded and thrashed with lathis. Over 50 such parades were held across 15 police stations to instil fear among criminals and reassure the public. Suspects were taken from their homes, paraded in their localities, and then escorted to the police station. Officials stated that the drive aimed to target wanted criminals and update records to prevent future disputes.
We found several media reports (here, and here) covering the Indore police’s anti-crime drive from May 2015.
We reached out to Indore police for more details about the video and will update the article once we receive a response. Based on the available information, we can conclude that it is a 2015 incident and has no connection to Rajasthan.
To sum up, the viral video is of the Indore police’s 2015 anti-crime drive and has no connection to Rajasthan or Anop Mandal.
