Old video of police brutality from UP viral again. Action was taken against cops in 2017

by Kinjal

A video depicting police brutality has surfaced on social media. In the video, two cops are seen torturing a man by placing a stick on his legs and standing on it, even as he screams in pain. The video is being shared as scenes from Uttar Pradesh and it is claimed that police under chief minister Yogi Adityanath are committing such atrocities on the public. X handle ‘Samajwadi Prahari’ posted this video with the same claim. (Archived link)

X user ‘@parmanandyadavv’, who claims to be the national secretary of the student Council of the Samajwadi Party, posted this video as footage of ‘atrocities carried out by the Uttar Pradesh Police.’ (Archived link to the post)

Another X user posted this video with the claim that atrocities on the public had gone up under the BJP’s leadership.

This video has also been shared on YouTube with the same claim. (Link)

Several users recently amplified the video on X as well. 

Fact Check

Alt News had previously fact-checked this video back in August 2019. At the time, this footage was viral with the false claim that the ‘Gahmar Police beat up a boy for not serving them tea’.

According to a report by NDTV India dated November 19, 2017, the police had brutally beaten up the young man on charges of theft based on a woman’s complaint. After a video of the incident surfaced, the station in-charge of Paniyara police station was suspended.

Refuting the information in the viral post on June 5, 2025, the fact-checking wing of the Uttar Pradesh Police clarified that the video was actually of an incident that occurred in Maharajganj in 2017, in which appropriate action had been taken. According to a rebuttal letter by Maharajganj Police, in 2017, a woman had accused the alleged person of theft in the Paniyara district, after which he was called for questioning at the Paniyara station, with the video emerging later on. Action was taken against the sub-inspector and constable seen in the video. The police also urged people not to circulate the video of this old incident as recent.

To sum up, a video of police personnel beating up a boy on charges of theft in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj is viral again with different claims. However, the incident is from 2017. The readers should note that in 2017 too, Yogi Adityanath was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. 

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About the Author

Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.