A photo of an injured policeman and a video that shows a mob thrashing cops is viral. According to the accompanying message, the Bareilly Civil Lines police issued challans to a few people, who in turn began attacking the police officers. It is alleged that the perpetrators were Muslims. Along with this, the situation in Afghanistan has also been referenced in the posts.

Twitter user Nishit Kumar tweeted a few pictures with the same claim.

Some other Twitter users also posted the image and accompanying claim. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)

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Twitter handle @hamarahindusta3 amplified the video with a similar message. (Archive link)

The video is widespread on Facebook, and the images have made their way to WhatsApp as well.

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Fact-check

The video and pictures pertain to separate incidents and will be debunked in this fact-check one by one.

Video

We had already fact-checked this video in March 2021 when it was being shared on social media with the same claim. According to a Dainik Bhaskar report dated March 23, 2021, “The incident occurred in Jurhera town near the border of Bharatpur and Haryana. A police constable of Haryana’s Punhana Police Station had come to Jurhera to investigate a case. While passing through the market, the police car collided with another vehicle. Following the collision, there was an altercation between the officer and the youth in the other vehicle. The matter escalated to the extent that the enraged youths caught hold of the constable and thrashed him fiercely.”

Alt News had contacted IG Prasanna Khamesra of Bharatpur range to get to the bottom of the incident. “This incident occurred on February 23 in Jurhera town but no officers from the Rajasthan Police are involved. A group of officers in the Haryana Police had come to Jurhera. There is absolutely no Hindu-Muslim angle here. What happened was that two minors ran away from Haryana and came here. When the Jurhera Police informed the Haryana Police about this, they sent their officers to retrieve the two. This was when their car collided with a local leader. Following a scuffle between both parties, the head constable of the Haryana Police was beaten up by one or two people and locals, though the matter was resolved later. The SHO of Punhana also reached the scene, and both parties mutually consented to not file any charges. The officer also handed the minors over to them,” he said.

Images

Bareilly Police clarified on Twitter on September 27 that the bleeding policeman seen in the picture was a head constable appointed in GRP Kanpur who died by suicide on September 20, 2021, in Prayagraj.

The Senior Superintendent of Police of Bareilly had also issued a statement on the matter.

According to a Dainik Bhaskar story dated September 20, 2021, Head Constable Chintamani Yadav, who had been posted in Kanpur, died by suicide by shooting himself with his government-issued pistol in the Police Lines bathroom. The article said that the reason for the suicide was being investigated.

Kanpur Police issued a statement regarding the incident. It said that Chintamani had been posted in Kanpur since 2019 and the reason for his suicide was under investigation. They also added that his family members had no doubts that his death was a suicide.

To sum it up, photos and videos from two separate incidents were shared with the false claim that a group of Muslims thrashed police officers in Bareilly.

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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.