Fact-check: Was Ramkesh Meena beaten after saffron flag was torn down from Amagarh Fort?

A saffron flag atop Jaipur’s Amagarh Fort was torn down by a group in the presence of Independent MLA Ramkesh Meena. The politician drew the ire of several Hindutva organizations and locals filed an FIR against unidentified persons. Meena issued a statement saying, “This fort is a historical monument for the Meena community. Some anti-social elements tried to tamper with it, which was unacceptable to the local people.” He also spoke to the channel First India News that aired a video of the flag being taken down.

Another video of a mob thrashing a man dressed in white is circulating on Facebook and Twitter. Users claim that locals thrashed MLA Ramkesh Meena for the flag row. Facebook page ‘Shri Bajrang Sena’ wrote, “Ramkesh Meena MLA, who hoisted the saffron flag, the holy flag of Hindu religion in Rajasthan, was chased and beaten by Hindus.” It racked up over 1 lakh views at the time of writing. (Archive link)

Facebook user Devesh Tiwari also shared this clip with the same claim. (Archive link)

It was further amplified by one Subodh Sharma. (Archive link)

Old video

Alt News performed a keyword search on Youtube, leading us to a video from April 10, 2018. It was titled, “Former MLA Ramkesh Meena chased and beaten in Gangapur”.

When we ran a keyword search filtered by time, we came across a News18 report dated April 7, 2018. It said that during the Bharat Bandh on April 2, a group of miscreants beat up Ramkesh Meena in Gangapur city located in Madhopur district. In fact, former Parliamentary Secretary Ramkesh Meena was sitting on a dharna in front of the subdivision office from March 30 in protest of changes to the SC/ST Act. He also led the rally organised during the Bharat Bandh on April 2. There were several arson and stone-pelting incidents at many places as the situation deteriorated during the rally. The report states further that Meena had arrived to reason with the group that was resorting to violence. Paying no heed to him, the angry mob began attacking the politician. His clothes were torn as he was chased and beaten. A video of this had gone viral on social media.

In 2018, this clip was falsely shared as BJP MLA beaten by a crowd. India Today had fact-checked the claim back then.

Therefore, an old video of a mob attacking Ramkesh Meena, who had come to pacify the same group, was shared on social media as recent. The viral visuals were accompanied by a false claim that Meena was thrashed by a mob in Rajasthan in connection with the tearing down of a saffron flag.