Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
CLAIM
A video of an alleged Arvind Kejriwal rally is being shared on Twitter with the claim that an incident of brutality took place at his road show where a man was ‘lynched’, which implies an extrajudicial killing by a mob, while Kejriwal stayed mute.
Filmmaker and author Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri took to Twitter on Friday, 31 January, to share the video.
An archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.
The video shared by him showed an open car with some people standing on it, while a large crowd surrounded it. A number of people can also be seen beating up someone, while police appear to be attempting to stop them.
While the video had 1,96,000 views, Agnihotri’s tweet had 15,000 retweets and 25,000 likes at the time this story was published.
Agnihotri’s tweet showed that the video had been sourced from a Twitter user called Amit Raina.
BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya also shared the same video, alleging that AAP workers were indulging in brutality and lynching a man while Kejriwal remained a ‘mute spectator’.
An archived version of Malviya’s tweet can be seen here.
The video was also shared on Facebook.
Agnihotri and Malviya’s tweets come in the backdrop of the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls on 8 February, ahead of which political leaders, including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, have been holding rallies in various parts of the city. Both of their tweets seem to imply that the incident is fresh and happened in the recent past.
TRUE OR FALSE?
While a person was attacked, as seen in the video, at a roadshow where Kejriwal was present, it is an old incident, and so is the clip.
The incident happened in May 2019, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and the man in question was not lynched but roughed up.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED
The Quint watched the video closely and was able to identify it as an incident that gained wide attention from May 2019. Moreover, a woman’s voice can be heard saying in the video that Kejriwal had climbed atop the vehicle, when a man got up and slapped him.
This pointed us to the fact that this was actually an old video from May 2019, when Kejriwal was campaigning for AAP’s New Delhi constituency candidate Brijesh Goyal at a roadshow in Moti Nagar. At the roadshow, a man named Suresh climbed up on the jeep from which Kejriwal was waving and slapped him.
Following this, the man was beaten up by AAP workers in retaliation for slapping their leader.
Many news outlets, including The Quint, had reported on the incident.
News agency ANI had also tweeted the same video.
On watching the video carefully, it can be seen that the scene of the incident is the same as the one shared by Malviya and Agnihotri. The video they shared show the aftermath of the slap, only a part of which can be seen in the ANI video. However, it can be seen that a large number of men had launched themselves on the man and beat him up.
Moreover, on watching the viral video carefully, it can be seen that just before all the men converge on the person being beaten up, he can be seen wearing a red t-shirt, which is the same as the man who slapped Kejriwal.
Both the videos also show Kejriwal and the two men behind him, in the same position on the jeep. Even the same song can be heard playing in the background of both videos.
Additionally, The Quint was able to identify one man who climbs across the jeep towards the crowd, who can be seen in both the videos. This man can be seen wearing a blue and white checked shirt.
The two photos below show the man, circled in red, in nearly the same position atop the jeep.
As stated before, both Agnihotri and Malviya shared the video from a Twitter user by the name of Amit Raina. On searching for his tweet, we found that it was dated 8 May 2019, which also proves that this was an old video.
Following the incident, the man in question was sent to two-day judicial custody and charged under section 107/51 of the CrPC by the Delhi Police. According to ANI, Delhi Police had registered a FIR under IPC Section 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt).
It is clear then that both Agnihotri and Malviya have shared an old video with a misleading claim and have also implied that this incident is fresh, feeding into the idea that it happened during campaigning.
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