CLAIM
Following the recent implementation of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act – that has resulted in steep penalties for violations of traffic rules – a video is being circulated on social media with the claim that after being challaned, a man beat up the police officer with his shoe. The video shows a scuffle between a policeman and a man on scooter.
The claim along with the video reads: “चालान काटने पे चले जूत्ते, रुझान आने शुरू हुए’’’ (Man beat cop up with shoe.. early trends show)
The Facebook page of ‘जनशक्ति समाचार’ shared the video, which was viewed over three million times and shared as many as 37,000 times till the time this article was written.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim along with the video is false. While it’s true that the incident took place, the man on the scooter was not ‘challaned’. The video is from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We did a frame-to-frame analysis using InVID, a video verification tool, and then reverse-searched each frame on Google. This led us to an article published by Indiatimes on 26 August with the headline ‘Stopped For Not Wearing Helmet, Man Lashes Out At Traffic Cop & Beats Him With Slippers!’
The article had embedded journalist Piyush Rai’s tweet, uploaded on 25 August, in which he had mentioned that the incident took place in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He further stated that a traffic homeguard slapped a commuter and the fight happened over a helmet.
Rai further told The Quint that no challan was issued in this incident. The traffic homeguard had stopped the commuter as he was not wearing a helmet. To which, the commuter had said that a traffic homeguard cannot issue challans, he added.
“A fight happened between the two. However, no challan was issued. Later, a compromise happened at the police station.”Journalist Piyush Rai
The incident was reported by Navbharat Times and Scroll.
The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, which came into force on 1 September, aims at stricter punishment for violation of traffic regulations.
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