Old Video From Gujarat Shared as Recent After Bhupendra Patel Took Charge

The video is from 2018 when cops had paraded and thrashed three accused in public "to rid out fear".

The claim states that it is a recent video after the new CM of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel took charge.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of three men tied and held by ropes being thrashed by a plain-clothed policeman in public is being shared on social media with the claim that the incident took place after Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel took oath on 13 September.

However, we found that the video is from 2018 from Bhavnagar district in Gujarat when cops had paraded three accused, including one notorious gangster Shailesh Dhandalia, on the streets to send a message to not fear the criminals and report to the police.

CLAIM

The video is being shared with the claim in Hindi that reads: "गुजराती सिंघम... गुजरात के नए मुख्यमंत्री बनते ही रूजान आने शुरू विडियो देखे ताजा(भावनगर)."

(Translation: As soon as the new Gujarat CM took charge, a new pattern seems to have emerged. Video from Bhavnagar.)

An archive of the post can be found here.

Social media users have compared the cop to a character in a Bollywood film called 'Singham', played by Ajay Devgn, where the popular policeman solves problems, however, not following the rulebook.

Archived links can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

In the viral video, we can see the logo of 'Metro India News', and we looked for it on YouTube.

We found the YouTube channel and found the video published on 8 September 2018, with over 1.1 million views.

Video from 2018.

We also found the video published on the YouTube channel of News18 Gujarati on 1 September 2018 and the title reads, "Bhavnagar Police takes out procession of Shailesh Dhandhaliya."

Video from 2018.

We looked for news reports about the incident and one by Sandesh, a Gujarati daily, reported on 30 August 2018 that three were arrested in a land dispute case by Ahmedabad police, and later the custody was transferred to Bhavnagar police.

A Times of India report on 29 August 2018 read that three men, including history-sheeter Shailesh Dhandalia and his two aides, were arrested from Ahmedabad in connection with an attempt to murder case that was registered in Talaja town in Bhavnagar district, over a disputed land case.

SAME VIDEO VIRAL WITH DIFFERENT CLAIM IN 2018

The same video was viral in 2018, albeit a different claim that read, "RSS members had beaten up Dalits as police looked on".

Fact-checking website BOOM had identified the cop seen thrashing the accused as Deepak Mishra, police inspector, Crime Branch, Bhavnagar.

Dismissing the claim as false, Mishra had told them that he had paraded the three accused on the streets of Talaja to "rid the public of fear".

Clearly, the video is three years old and has nothing to do with the recent change of guard in Gujarat.

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