Following the attacks on the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) workers in Rajasthan, several social media users claimed that CJP convenor Ashutosh Ranka was accompanied by a man who had earlier been found calling for demolishing the Parliament and provoking Nepal-like violence during the July 20 protest in Delhi. 

As part of its ‘School Thik Karo’ initiative,  a CJP team visited a government school operating from a buffalo shed at Rampura in Kanwarpura area of Jaipur district in Rajasthan when they were allegedly attacked. They reported being beaten with sticks and pelted with stones. CJP later accused the attackers of being affiliated with the BJP. 

On August 21, X user Office of Vijay Patel (@VijayGajeraO) claimed that Ranka had arrived with “goons” who wanted to attack Parliament and trigger Nepal-style mass violence in India. The post featured a collage comparing a man accompanying Ranka with another man seen in a viral video from the CJP protest. The latter had allegedly said that Parliament would be attacked and a Nepal-like situation created if Dharmendra Pradhan did not resign. (Archive) 

The handle is run by Right-wing influencer Vijay Patel who claims to be an investigative journalist. The post has garnered over 850,000 views.

Abhijit Iyer Mitra (@Iyervval), another Right-wing influencer, shared and amplified the claim. (Archive)

The post amassed over 150,000 views.

Another pro-BJP handle user, Raushan Sinha (@Mrsinha), also shared a similar comparison, claiming that the man who once threatened to turn India into a Nepal-like situation during the protest is now a CJP volunteer. His post read, “From threatening Parliament to becoming a ‘volunteer’ for CJP, quite a journey for the champions of democracy.” 

The post gained around 100,000 views, and thereafter it was deleted. 

This is not the first time that such comparisons have been made. Immediately after the July 20 protest, it was claimed that the man who called for Nepal-like violence had been seen sitting with Abhijeet Dipke, and was a CJP core member.  

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Fact Check

A closer examination of the two visuals — the Rajasthan video and the Jantar Mantar footage — reveals that the comparison is flawed, as they are two different people. 

The man seen with Ashutosh Ranka and the CJP team is Vijay Sherawat, who hails from Jaipur, Rajasthan.  

Alt News found a video that Sherawat had shared in response to the older claim, in which he defends himself against false accusations. He clarifies that he was not the same person who remarked that a Nepal-like situation would be created in India and the Parliament would be set afire if Pradhan did not resign. 

In the video uploaded on July 31, Sherawat stated, “It is the IT cell people who are engaging in this low-level politics to defame the CJP team. I am not that person.” He also strongly condemned the remarks made by the other individual during the protest and called for appropriate punishment for those comments.

The individual whose video went viral during the ‘Chalo Sansad’ march has also been identified as Saurav Singh, who claims to be a physiotherapist by profession. 

Below is a comparison between the a screengrab from the viral threat video and a close-up shot of Singh from a reel he shared on Instagram:

To sum up, the individual who provoked violence and threatened to set the Parliament ablaze is not the same one as the one seen with Ashutosh Ranka during the CJP team’s visit to Rajasthan or with Abhijeet Dipke in an older video. The individual seen with the CJP leaders is Vijay Sherawat. The man who issued threats at Jantar Mantar is Saurav Singh.   

After the post by @VijayGajeraO was called out as false, the user reshared it with a corrigendum acknowledging the mistake. However, the false claim has not been taken down.   

False
Claim:
The man who called for Nepal-like violence at Jantar Mantar was seen with Ashutosh Ranka in Rajasthan

The content is factually incorrect or fabricated.

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