Mojo’s Video of Cop Beating Boy is 8 Months Old? No, Fake Claim!

Many on social media are claiming that a video of a policeman on a road beating a boy with a stick is eight months old and that the boy is a chain snatcher and had attacked the cops as well. They are reacting to a video of the incident which was uploaded by media outlet Mojo.

However, in a press release, Delhi Police has said that the incident is from the intervening night of 22-23 August. They have also lodged an enquiry into the conduct of the policeman seen in the video.

CLAIM

BJP leader Kapil Mishra was among those who called the video uploaded by Mojo on 24 August fake, adding the narrative that the video was eight months old and that the boy in the video is a chain snatcher who was caught attacking women on the road with blades. According to Mishra, the boy had also attacked the policeman, leading to the beating.

Many on Twitter and Facebook claimed the same in replies to various people sharing the video.

Many people on Facebook shared the video itself with the same claim.

WHAT WE FOUND

Mojo had uploaded the video on Twitter on 24 August, saying that it showed a policeman assaulting a young boy in Delhi’s RK Puram. The clip went viral, with many Bollywood celebrities lashing out at the behaviour of the policeman and calling for action.

As opposed to the claim made on social media, the video cannot be eight months old as that would be approximately be January. The cops in the video are lacking warm clothing, which means that it cannot be winter.

Further, since the furore over the video on social media, Delhi Police issued a clarification saying that the incident was from the night of 22-23 August.

According to them, the beat staff on area patrolling near Ekta Vihar JJ camp saw four to five boys loitering around a public toilet and were asked to leave the place. They had already been told, the police said, that women of nearby JJ camps, who had been using this public toilet especially at night, had raised repeated concerns about their presence.

“Around 3 am they again saw them back and were chased away. An enquiry has been ordered into the conduct of constable as shown in the video,” the clarification said.

“Additional DCP (South West) Amit Kaushik has been asked to conduct a fact-finding inquiry and take appropriate action on the basis of the findings,” The Indian Express quoted an officer as saying.

Mojo is led by senior journalist Barkha Dutt, which is why people are claiming that “the Barkha gang” is spreading fake news. However, it is clear that the claims on social media are false and that the video is very much recent and that the boy had committed no crime.

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