Old Video of Man Thrashing Cop Falsely Shared as Recent Clip From West Bengal
The video is an old one and does not show a Bengal MLA assaulting a policeman in West Bengal.
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A video of man assaulting a policeman has gone viral on social media, where users have claimed that it shows visuals from West Bengal's Murshidabad.
The claim: The video is being shared with text in Hindi, which loosely translates to "Look at Bengal MLA Mansoor Mohammad Dimir. When this is the condition of the police personnel deployed on duty in police uniform, then what will be the condition of Bengalis...! Share this video so much that it is seen all over India (sic)."
(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here and here.)
But...?: The claim is false and the video has no connection to the ongoing violence over the Waqf (Amendment) Act in Murshidabad.
It dates back to 2018 and shows a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader assaulting a police official and intimidating a lawyer in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
How did we find out the truth?: We carried out a reverse image search on a section of the video using Google Lens, which led us to the same video uploaded on video hosting website Dailymotion.
It was uploaded by Hindustan Times on 20 October 2018 with the title, "Watch: BJP corporator thrash Sub Inspector, intimidate lady lawyer in Uttar Pradesh (sic)."
More reports by India Today and Indian Express, which carried screenshots from the video, said that the incident took place at a hotel in Meerut on 19 October 2018, where sub inspector Sukhpal Singh and a lawyer had gone to discuss a case.
The incident took place in Meerut on 19 October 2018.
(Source: India Today/Screenshot)
A quarrel broke out between Singh and the staff after there was a delay in serving food, India Today said.
During the row, the hotel's staff called the owner, Manish Chaudhary, who was also a BJP leader. After he arrived, Chaudhary reportedly slapped and abused the policeman.
Two FIRs were registered against Chaudhary, who was later arrested. Local BJP leaders met with the district's Superintendent of police, calling the action taken against Chaudhary "one sided."
They also made demands for FIRs to be registered against the cop and the lawyer, according to Indian Express.
Conclusion: An old video from Meerut has gone viral with the false claim that it shows Bengal MLA Mansoor Mohammad Dimir assaulting police personnel in West Bengal.
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