Massive protests have broken out in Assam over the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) by Parliament. In this backdrop, a video clip has been circulated by social media users with the narrative that it depicts police high-handedness in dealing with protests over the controversial bill.
#CAB_नहीं_चलेगा #CABProtests is this how you treat us. #CABBill2019 pic.twitter.com/aRGvnE3mq3
— Abhigyan Sarmah Gogoi (@abhigyan_ARCMJ) December 12, 2019
As seen in the above tweet, the video clip is six seconds long and shows a policeman lathi charging a woman on a street. The video has also been posted on Facebook.
Posted by Shashanka Axom Dutta on Wednesday, December 11, 2019
The above video, posted on December 11 without a caption, has been viewed over 11,000 times and shared around 400 times so far. Considering the context within which the video has been shared, numerous users have asserted that the video is from Assam.
OLD VIDEO; NOT RELATED TO CAB PROTEST
Alt News found this is an old video clip from Jharkhand. It is not related to the protests over the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
Alt News scrolled through the comments section of the video posted on Facebook and found a comment by a user asserting that the video is not from Assam. The comment also contained a link to a YouTube video.
On the basis of this information, we found that the video is from Jharkhand. The video was posted on YouTube by The Times of India on September 25, 2019 with the title, ‘On cam: Brutal lathicharge on Anganwadi workers in Jharkhand‘.
According to a report by Patrika, the women seen assaulted are anganwadi workers, who had attempted to gherao the Chief Minister’s residence in Ranchi, when the police resorted to a vicious lathicharge to quell the protest. The workers were demanding a hike in salary. Following the incident, the National Commission for Women (NCW) had taken suo moto cognizance of the matter and demanded strict action against the policemen.
The passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill by Parliament has resulted in a stream of misinformation on social media. Old videos have been circulated on social media with false claims, in the context of this controversial enactment. It may be noted that the video clip showing a policeman lathicharging a woman, is from Jharkhand, and the incident occurred in September 2019. It is in no way related to the protests over the bill.
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