Visuals of BJP leader getting beaten over a local dispute in Noida falsely linked to Manipur issue - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 1, 2023
A video of a man being chased by a mob and beaten with sticks is viral on social media with a claim that the man getting beaten is a BJP leader named Rohit Pandit. He was allegedly beaten as he was discussing the Manipur issue. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: A BJP leader in Greater Noida was beaten by a mob for discussing about the Manipur issue.
Fact: This incident occurred on 25 July 2023 in Ladpura village, Gautham Buddha Nagar. According to the FIR filed by police, the fight seen in the video happened over a land dispute between the locals. Reportedly, BJP District Vice President Rahul Pandit was also present in this dispute which has nothing to do with the Manipur Issue. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To learn more about the viral clip, we performed a reverse image search on a few of its keyframes online. This search led us to a tweet that contained the same video and described it as visuals of a BJP leader of Greater Noida getting thrashed for discussion on the Manipur issue. In response to this tweet, police commissioner Gautham Buddha Nagar clarified that this video is related to a mutual dispute between two parties and that action was being taken by registering charges against both parties.
उक्त वायरल वीडियो दो पक्षों के बीच गांव में हुए आपसी विवाद के संबंध में है।
पुलिस द्वारा दोनों पक्षों के विरुद्ध गंभीर धाराओं में अभियोग पंजीकृत कर प्रभावी एवं निष्पक्ष कार्रवाई की जा रही है।
To learn further about this incident, we took the police statement as a hint and searched the internet with relevant keywords leading us to a few news reports (here, here, and here) on this incident.
According to Dainik Bhaskar, this incident occurred on 25 July 2023 in Ladpura village of Greater Noida. Reportedly, two village factions clashed over disputed land in which a BJP leader was chased and beaten. His name is Rahul Pandit; and is the district vice president of Gautham Buddha Nagar. We also found the FIR filed on this incident in the Kasna Police Station Greater Noida (Gautham Buddha Nagar), which can be seen here.
Neither the news reports nor the FIR related to this incident linked it to the Manipur issue, as claimed in the viral post. This evidence makes it clear that the viral video and the claim associated with it misquotes this video as a BJP leader beaten up for discussing the Manipur issue.
To sum up, visuals of a BJP leader getting beaten over a local dispute in Noida falsely linked to the Manipur issue.