Old video of inter-family dispute shared as BJP MLA beating up a dalit youth

“B.j.p. विधायक अनिल उपाध्याय की इस हरकत पर क्या कहेगे मोदी जी (What will Modi opine on this act of BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay -translated)”, reads a caption attached to a video where a group of people are seen thrashing an individual with sticks. It urges social media users to circulate the video across the country. The caption, tweeted by a user Amarnath, suggests that the man beaten up by this group is a Dalit as the caption also said, “Subalterns, Dalits cannot drive a luxurious car”.

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..👇
दलित पिछड़े अलीशान कार में नहीं घूम नहीं सकते हैं pic.twitter.com/5WIIJ4qo5F

— अमरनाथ(मंडल महासचिव ‘भीम सेना’) इलाहाबाद उ. प्र. (@AmarNat94778546) April 27, 2019

Several individuals on Twitter and Facebook have shared the video with an identical narrative.

Old and unrelated

Upon searching for the relevant keywords on Google, Alt News found a video report published, by The Times of India, on April 4, 2017. According to the report, a man was mercilessly beaten up by his in-laws in Gandhinagar.

The relatives were angry at the man’s violent behaviour towards his wife. “The man allegedly had been hitting his wife for the five years, apparently since the time they had tied the knot. He had a history of domestic violence against her, which had time and again angered the woman’s relatives.”, stated a Mumbai Mirror report.

In conclusion, an old video of violence against an individual in Gujarat was falsely shared as a Dalit man attacked by a BJP leader. Moreover, the candidate’s name – Anil Upadhyay – was also fictitious. My Neta, a website that contains details about state and central legislators, did not include any information about a person by that name who belonged to either of the parties. In the last month, four different, unrelated videos have been circulated on social media as that of misdeeds conducted by this fictitious character.