A video through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that Hindutva radicalised cops were brutally assaulting an elderly Muslim man. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing Hindutva radicalised cops beating an elderly Muslim man.
Fact: The video is from April 2020 and is not a recent one. The police in the video were using force to disperse the crowd who were gathered unlawfully, violating the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines. The crowd attacked the cops who sustained injuries; several were booked by Bareilly police for allegedly attacking the policemen in Uttar Pradesh. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When a reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, the same video was found posted on Twitter. To the same tweet, Bareilly Police replied saying that the video was from 2020 when a complete lockdown was implemented because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The police say that mild force had been used to disperse the crowd as the people who gathered unlawfully tried to misbehave with the police.
When we searched online with relevant keywords, a video report with similar visuals was found. The YouTube video was uploaded on 07 April 2020 by OTV, a news channel in Odisha. The police in the video were using force because of some people who violated the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines and also ransacked a police station in UP. There was no mention in the report that there was a communal narrative to the incident. According to news reports, the crowd attacked the cops who sustained injuries. Several were booked by Bareilly police for allegedly attacking the policemen.
To sum it up, an old video of police dispersing the crowds for violating COVID-19 guidelines is shared with a communal narrative.
