An unrelated 2018 video of a BJP councillor assaulting a policeman in Meerut is falsely shared as an incident from West Bengal
A video (here, here and here) viral on social media shows a man thrashing a police personnel, with claims that the attacker is West Bengal MLA Mansoor Mohammad Dimir. Let’s fact-check the truth behind this video.
Claim: The viral video shows West Bengal MLA Mansoor Mohammad Dimir assaulting a police personnel.
Fact: The video is unrelated to West Bengal or any MLA from the state. It actually shows a 2018 incident from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where BJP corporator Manish Chaudhary was arrested for assaulting a police officer at a restaurant. No MLA named Mansoor Mohammad Dimir is elected to the current West Bengal Assembly. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
To verify the truth, we performed a reverse image search on Google, which led us to the same video posted on X by ANI on 20 October 2018. The caption stated that BJP Councillor Manish had assaulted a Sub-Inspector who had visited his hotel with a woman lawyer and got into an argument with a waiter. The councillor was later arrested. This indicates that the incident has no connection to West Bengal MLA Mansoor Mohammad Dimir.
We also found a news video on the YouTube channel News18 UP Uttarakhand, uploaded on 20 October 2018. The report features the same video and has a Hindi caption stating, “Meerut: BJP councillor brutally beats up a UP police inspector.” According to the report, the police registered a case against the hotel owner and the BJP councillor based on a woman’s complaint, leading to the accused’s arrest. It further states that Inspector Sukhpal had visited the hotel in an inebriated state to have dinner with the woman. This confirms that the incident took place in Uttar Pradesh, not West Bengal, and has no connection to any Bengal MLA.
Further research led us to multiple news reports ( here, here, here ) including one from The Indian Express, which confirmed that BJP corporator Manish Chaudhary was arrested for assaulting Sub-Inspector Sukhpal Singh Panwar at his restaurant in Meerut. The altercation began after an argument over delayed service, during which Panwar, reportedly in an inebriated state and accompanied by a woman lawyer, allegedly pointed his service pistol at a waiter. The incident was captured on video and went viral, prompting police action. Chaudhary was booked under non-bailable sections, while Panwar was sent for a medical examination and relieved of duty pending an investigation.
Additionally, we conducted a keyword search to find if any such incident took place in West Bengal where an MLA assaulted a police officer but found no recent reports. Moreover, official sources confirm that there is no MLA named Mansoor Mohammad Dimir in the current assembly. This further verifies that the viral video has no connection to West Bengal or any MLA from the state. When the same video went viral earlier with claims that a YSRCP leader had beaten up a policeman, Factly had fact-checked it.
To sum up, an unrelated 2018 video of a BJP councillor assaulting a policeman in Meerut was falsely shared as a recent incident from West Bengal.