UP Cops Thrashed Man for Not Serving Tea? Video’s Old & Misleading

The boy was thrashed on suspicion of theft and the incident dates back to 2017.

According to the claims made on social media, the boy was tortured for not serving tea to the policemen. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A video which shows two cops torturing a man by attempting to balance themselves on the two ends of a stick placed on his thigh is being circulated on Facebook and Twitter with a claim that the man was thrashed for not serving tea to the policemen.

The claim which is in Hindi loosely translates to, “The only mistake this man did was that he didn’t serve tea to these policemen in Gahmar police station.” It further goes on to appeal to the people to share the video so that the policemen in question are punished.

The man can be heard begging for mercy while the policemen don’t deter.

At the time of writing this story, the aforementioned tweet had garnered over 400 likes and 300 retweets. The video is also being circulated on Facebook.

(Source: Facebook)

TRUE OR FALSE?

While the incident did happen, the claim with which it is being shared is completely misleading.

Firstly, the incident didn’t take place at Gahmar police station, which is in Uttar Pradesh’s Gazipur district, but happened at Paniyara police station in UP’s Maharajganj district.

Secondly, the boy was not thrashed because he didn’t get tea for the policemen but because he was accused of theft. Moreover, the incident dates back to 2017.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On breaking down the video into several keyframes using the Invid Google Chrome extension, we came across a news report published by NDTV that had reported the incident.

According the report, the teenage boy was tortured as the cops were trying to recover the stolen items from him. However, following the outrage over the incident, the police had then said that they had suspended Sub Inspector KN Shahi, who is seen in the video.

NDTV also quoted Additional Superintendent of Police of Maharajganj Police Ashutosh Shukla as saying,

“The cops were trying to beat the boy and recover the items allegedly stolen by him. They could not find any items on him and so he was let off. We have suspended the policeman in question, the Sub Inspector, and we will take more action after a detailed inquiry.”

The Quint got in touch with Shukla to know about the other cop seen in the video and if the two have resumed their service now.

Confirming the incident, Shukla said that one of them was a sub inspector while the other was a home guard, but both of them were suspended. He also added that after inquiry and necessary action the two have now resumed service.

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