A disturbing video is taking tours on the social media platforms with a false claim that a group of Muslim men thrashed police personnel in Bareilly’s civil lines area because they were challaned for breaking the law. The translated claim along with the video reads, “Bareilly Civil Lines news: When police charged fine on them, a group of Muslim men attacked them. This video tells us what will be the fate of this country in the coming days. Who will run this country and what will be the future of all of us. The bitter truth is that the country is facing much more internal threats than external ones”
While looking through the incident, a tweet by Bareilly police was found, where the viral video was marked out and mentioned that the incident had not taken place in the district.
After conducting a reverse image search on one of the screenshots from the viral video and performing a keyword search with relevant Hindi words, it was found that it was from a news report published on March 25 on ETV Bharat. The Hindi headline of the article translates to ‘Haryana police on lookout for couple thrashed, video viral’. The report shares the viral video.
ETV Haryana had also covered the incident. According to the ETV report which was published on March 25, 2021 also shares the video clip of the incident. The report stated that the video was around a month old. The report further mentioned that the incident took place when the vehicle of Harayana police brushed a local in the crowded market in Jurhara, Rajasthan. The Haryana police were on their way to the Jurhara police station to investigate a case.
When a confrontation took place, after a verbal spat between the locals and Harayana police, the matter escalated and the angry villagers started thrashing the police constable. IG Prasanna Khamesra of the Bharatpur range. “This incident is from February 23. And it did occur in Jurahara town but no members of the Rajasthan police were involved. A few officers from the Haryana police had come to the town, and there is no communal angle here either. A minor girl and boy had fled to Jurahara, which the local police informed the Haryana police. When the Haryana police came to retrieve the two, their car collided with a local leader’s vehicle. The matter took a violent turn after the head constable of the Haryana police beat up one or two men. The locals retaliated by beating the policeman. The commotion was eventually resolved. Punhana SHO also reached the scene, and both sides mutually decided not to file a report,” he said.
“The online claim that Mewat police is unsafe is incorrect. There is no communal angle to the matter. We don’t look at the perpetrator’s religion, but the nature of the offence. No matter what religion or area they may be from, it is the police’s job to investigate and bring them to justice. This video is being shared on social media with a false claim,” he further said.
On March 25, a YouTube channel Republic Mewat reported about the case. The channel said that Haryana policemen collided with a Congress leader’s vehicle. This led to a skirmish where the locals began hitting the cops. We discovered that the vehicle hit by the police car belonged to Khurshid Ahmed, who served as BJP district minister from Bharatpur for 30 years and joined Congress in 2018. Ahmed said, “This case is a month old and people are sharing it with false claims. There was no communal angle. My old friends who are upset because I joined Congress are sharing this, even though I was part of the BJP for 30 years. The police car collided with mine and the same people began hurling abuses at me. I won’t lie, I did the same. The matter escalated and the policeman beat up a person standing next to me. Seeing this, Hindu bystanders from nearby shops also came and began beating the policemen. Both parties got physical,” he explained.
Thus, an old video is shared over and over again with a false communal angle.
