Incident From Rajasthan Shared With False Communal Angle

The video is from Rajasthan and shows a fight between a cop and locals after the latter’s jeep hit a local leader.

The viral video claims that the incident took place in Bareilly. 

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A video is doing the rounds on social media with a false claim that a group of Muslim men thrashed a police personnel in Bareilly’s Civil lines area because they were challaned for breaking the law.

The video is being shared with a misleading claim. First, the video is from Rajasthan and second, a fight ensued between the police personnel and some locals after the police’s car hit a local leader named Khurshid.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video reads, “बरेली सिविल लाईन्स न्यूज़ पुलिस द्वारा चालान काटने पर मुसलमानों ने उनकी पिटाई की जो कानून को चुनौती है! यह वीडियो बताता है की आगे हिन्दुस्तान मे क्या क्या होगा. कौन देश चलायेगा! और सबका भविष्य क्या होगा ! कड़वा सच यह है कि देश को बाहर से ज्यादा अन्दर से बहुत ज्यादा खतरा है!

(Translation: In Bareilly’s Civil Lines area, a policeman was beaten up by a group of Muslims, who were breaking the law. This videos speaks volumes about what will happen in India. Who will run the nation and what will be our future. The truth is that the country faces an internal threat.)

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

The post has gone viral on Facebook and a few archived links can be viewed here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

While going through the comments in one of the tweets, we found a reply by Bareilly police who flagged the viral video and said that the incident had not taken place in the district.

An archive version of the tweet can be found here.

Using relevant keywords in Hindi on Google, we came across a news report by Dainik Bhaskar, which said that the incident had taken place in Jurhera town in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan nearly two-three months back.

We also found another report by ETV Bharat that Haryana police was travelling to Jurhera to investigate a case. However, their police jeep had hit a man in the market. When a confrontation took place, angry villagers started thrashing the police constable.

We then reached out to Bharatpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Devendra Kumar Bishnoi, who said that confrontation between the two parties led to the incident.

“Policemen from Punhana police station of Haryana were travelling to Jurhera to investigate a case. However, the police jeep had hit a local leader Khurshid Ahmed in the market. An altercation snowballed into a fight when the head constable slapped Khurshid.”

Devendra Kumar Bishnoi, Bharatpur SP 

He further added that the villagers present in the area then started thrashing the constable at the scene. He also clarified that there was no communal angle to the incident.

We also contacted Khurshid about the incident and he corroborated the details.

“There is no communal angle to the incident. The police jeep has hit me after which the policeman started an argument and tried to make me sit inside the jeep forcibly. People in the market gathered and started beating the cop.”

Khurshid Ahmed

After the video went viral, Ahmed had filed an FIR on 27 March. We also reached out to a local reporter who verified the claim and told us that the incident is indeed from Jurhera and had happened in February.

Clearly, an old video has been passed off with a communal spin on social media.

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