Old video of BJP corporator thrashing a cop shared with misleading narrative - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
27th September 2019 / 5:25 pm / Last updated: 13th January 2021
Twitter user Aakash Singh Chauhan (INC) @AakashS19706320 tweeted a video of a man thrashing a policeman. Chauhan claimed that the person in the clip is BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay. His tweet drew over 1 lakh views and more than 7,000 likes. The video is widespread on Twitter.
BJP विधायक #अनिल_उपाध्याय की हिम्मत तो देखिये जब पुलिस का ये हाल है तो आम जनता का क्या होगा मुबारक हो @narendramodi के रामराज्य में आप जी रहे,मेरे सत्य के प्रतीक देशवासियों आपसे विनम्र अपील है इस video को इतना वायरल करो की ये पूरा हिन्दुस्तान देख सके👇👇@srinivasiyc @LambaAlka pic.twitter.com/WUrkzzCM6t
— Aakash Singh Chauhan(INC) (@AakashS19706320) January 9, 2021
It has also been shared on Facebook.
BJP विधायक #अनिल_उपाध्याय की हिम्मत तो देखिये जब पुलिस का ये हाल है तो आम जनता का क्या होगा मुबारक हो @narendramodi के रामराज्य में आप जी रहे,मेरे सत्य के प्रतीक देशवासियों आपसे विनम्र अपील है इस video को इतना वायरल करो की ये पूरा हिन्दुस्तान देख सके👇👇
Posted by Salim Chauhan on Saturday, 9 January 2021
AAP Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti had retweeted this video in September 2019 with the message, “Of course this MLA shoild be put behind bar but more than that police personal should be dismissed from the job with immediate effect for cowardice surrender. [sic]” While the original tweet claimed that BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay was responsible for the act, Bharti quote-tweeted the video without referring to the name of the leader.
Of course this MLA shoild be put behind bar but more than that police personal should be dismissed from the job with immediate effect for cowardice surrender. https://t.co/pcPstTCr7u
— Adv. Somnath Bharti (@attorneybharti) September 27, 2019
Several other individuals on Twitter shared the same video with the identical narrative.
B.j.p. विधायक अनिल उपाध्याय की इस हरकत पर क्या कहेगे मोदी जी,
इस video को इतना वायरल करो की ये पूरा हिन्दुस्तान देख सके..👇 pic.twitter.com/xNmVmgStMa
— शिक्षा सिंह (@iShiksha_) September 26, 2019
The video has been doing the rounds on social media since April 2019 with a claim targeting the Congress party. The narrative was that the man seen beating up the policeman is Congress MLA Anil Upadhyay.
Alt News had debunked the same video when it went viral in April 2019 with the narrative that the man thrashing the policeman is Anil Upadhyay, a Congress MLA. It was found that no MLA by that name exists in either BJP or Congress.
After searching through MyNeta database, Alt News found two persons by the same name – Dr Anil Upadhyay, a BSP leader from Jodhpur who contested the Rajasthan polls in 2018, and Anil Kumar Upadhyay, an independent candidate from Lucknow who contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2007 and 2012.
Furthermore, the man in the video is a BJP corporator from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He was beating up a sub-inspector with the Uttar Pradesh police. Posted below is the video report by Hindustan Times published on 20 October 2018.
“An argument allegedly broke out between the police officer and the staff of a restaurant run by BJP leader Manish Panwar over a delay in order. The BJP leader has been arrested and the police officer removed from active duty.”, reported Hindustan Times. Reports later emerged that Meerut police had also filed a first information report against the sub-inspector Sukhpal Panwar and a woman lawyer in the restaurant assault case.
It may be reiterated that there is no MLA by the name of Anil Upadhyay in either BJP or Congress. The name has been misused on social media for political purposes, the latest instance being this video of a BJP corporator from UP assaulting a policeman.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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