Fact check: 2011 video of attack on Prashant Bhushan resurfaced in backdrop of his contempt case
By Vamsi Krishna Pothuru Published on 27 Aug 2020 1:00 PM GMT
Hyderabad: In the context of recent contempt charges against Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan, several users on social media shared a video of him being beaten up.
Prominent novelist Shobha De shared a video on Twitter with the caption "SHOCKING!! DISGRACEFUL #PrashantBhushanCase".
A Facebook user shared the same video with the caption "The Supreme Court Shri Prashant Bhushan yet another incident yesterday allegedly attacked by BJP GOONS."
Archive of the claims can be found here and here.
Fact Check:
FALSE, this video is related to the 2011 attack on Prashant Bhushan over his Kashmir remarks.
Several users commented on Shobha De's post identifying the video as an old incident from 2011. The keyword search by NewsMeter led to the complete report on the same incident by Times Now on October 14, 2011. The report stated that the attack happened over Prashant Bhushan'salleged remarks on Kashmir.
The Hindu also published an article about the same incident on October 12, 2011. "Senior lawyer and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan was violently attacked by activists of the Shri Ram Sena and a previously unknown outfit, Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, in his chamber located opposite the heavily guarded Supreme Court premises on Bhagwan Dass Road here on Wednesday. The organizations claimed that the assault was in retaliation to his recent statement on Jammu and Kashmir, purportedly supporting the demand for withdrawal of security forces and a referendum to gauge public opinion."
The same video was uploaded on YouTube on October 12, 2011.
Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan was held guilty of contempt over his tweets about the judiciary on August 14, 2020. The apex court reserved its order on the quantum of punishment while giving him a chance to apologize.
This claim has been previously fact-checked by BoomLive.
Hence, the video circulating on social media claiming Prashant Bhushan being attacked is related to the 2011 incident and was NOT a recent one.
