A post going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows a photo of a policeman restraining a Hindu priest. The post is being shared with the claim that Rewa SP Abid Khan, a Muslim officer, assaulted the priest on Ram Navami in Madhya Pradesh. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: SP Abid Khan, a Muslim police officer, assaulted a Hindu priest on Ram Navami in Madhya Pradesh.
Fact: The viral photo is from an incident that took place in April 2020 at Devi Mandir in Dhekha, Rewa, during the COVID-19 lockdown. Civil Lines police station in-charge Rajkumar Mishra, allegedly assaulted a priest for violating lockdown rules. He was later line-attached following public outrage. While Abid Khan was the SP of Rewa at the time, he was not involved in the incident. IG Rewa also clarified that the person in the photo was not SP Abid Khan. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to multiple reports (here, here) from April 2020 featuring the same picture. As per these reports, the incident took place at Devi Mandir in Dhekha, Rewa district, where the Civil Lines police station in-charge Rajkumar Mishra allegedly assaulted a priest for violating lockdown rules. Several others were also present at the temple during the incident. Following public outrage and complaints to then DGP Vivek Johri after the picture went viral, the then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed the police to take action on the official. Subsequently, IG Chanchal Shekhar line-attached Rajkumar Mishra. At the time, Abid Khan was Rewa’s SP, but he was not involved in the incident. Rewa IG later denied claims against anyone other than Rajkumar Mishra.
We also found a post on the official X handle of Madhya Pradesh Public Relations Department, dated 03 April 2020. It clarified that the policeman in the photo is not Rewa SP Abid Khan. IG Rewa confirmed that action was taken regarding a crowd gathering during the lockdown, and the police station in charge, Rajkumar Mishra, was line-attached for inappropriate conduct.
As per the official website of the Madhya Pradesh Government, Vivek Singh currently holds the position of Superintendent of Police in Rewa.
To sum up, the 2020 incident of a police officer assaulting a Hindu priest in Madhya Pradesh is being shared now with a false communal narrative.
