Unrelated video from Rajasthan shared as police atrocity after new traffic penalties

Penalties for traffic violations have risen steeply with the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019. After clauses of the new act came into effect on September 1, a video has spread like wild fire on social media and messaging platforms. The 1: 40-minute long video shows policemen lathi charging some men.

AAP leader Somnath Bharti has endorsed the narrative accompanying the video, tweeting that these policemen “ought to be suspended”. His tweet of September 5 has been retweeted over 1300 times so far.

मोटर व्हीकल एक्ट के अमेंडमेंट में चालान के साथ मारपीट भी लिख दिया है? क्या यह क्या नंगापन चल रहा है?जनता को उतना ही दबाओ जितना वह सह सकती है,सहने के आगे कुछ और है और अगर जनता अपने पर आ गई तो फिर संभालना मुश्किल हो जाएगा।जिन पुलिस वालों की हरकत की है उनको सस्पेंड किया जाना चाहिए। pic.twitter.com/77T9WUqqhH

— Adv. Somnath Bharti (@attorneybharti) September 5, 2019

The video has been shared with the message, “ट्रैफिक नियम बदलते ही पुलिस का आतंक शुरू अवैध वसूली का विरोध करने पर प्रारंभ हुई निरीह जनता की पिटाई इस वीडियो को अधिक से अधिक शेयर करें जिससे दोषी पुलिसकर्मियों को दंड मिल सके” (With the change in traffic rules, police’s terror has begun. Those opposing their extortion have been roughed up. Share this video widely so that these guilty policemen may be penalised- translated).

The video has been posted on both Twitter and Facebook. On the latter, it has gone viral with several users uploading it on their timelines.

The accompanying text is identical, suggesting that it has also been circulating on WhatsApp. This was confirmed with followers of the Alt News app requesting us for verification.

INCIDENT NOT RELATED TO ENFORCEMENT OF NEW TRAFFIC RULES

The social media claim circulating with the video is untrue. Alt News found a visual marker which provided a clue – the registration number of the police vehicle which can be seen toward the end of the video. The number begins with RJ14, confirming that the said incident took place in Rajasthan. Also, the words ‘QRT Alwar’ can be seen written on the back of one of the policemen.

On the basis of this clue, we took a frame from the video and reverse-searched it on Google along with the keywords, ‘राजस्थान पुलिस लाठीचार्ज’. The first result was a video report of August 29 by Aaj Tak titled, ‘कैमरे में कैद हुई राजस्थान पुलिस की छात्रों पर गुंडागर्दी’ (Rajasthan police’s goondagiri caught on camera- translated), with visuals of the same incident.

The incident had taken place in Alwar. Alleging fraud in vote-counting for the student union elections, some students had held a protest, demanding a recounting of votes when they were beaten up and harassed by the police. According to the report, six students were injured in the clash. The man seen in the video was also beaten up during the clash. Alt News found a video on Facebook where the man beaten up by the policemen is talking to a reporter about the incident.

A video of a clash between police and students in Alwar, Rajasthan over alleged fraud in the student union elections has gone viral on social media as police’s high-handedness following revised penalties for traffic violations. The story was earlier fact-checked by The Quint.