Fact Check: Bangladeshi man attacks police in Kolkata? No, image is old and from Jodhpur

Hyderabad: Amid the violence in West Bengal, particularly in the Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas districts, over the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which reforms the management of Muslim charitable properties, an image of a man holding a police officer by the jaw has been circulating on social media. Users sharing the image claim it shows an illegal Bangladeshi migrant attacking a police officer in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Sharing the image, an X user wrote satirically, “This is Bengal Babu, all this happens here. A Dhaka dentist is inspecting the jaw of a Kolkata Police constable.” (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)

Another X user shared the image and wrote, “Bangladeshi guest inspecting the jaw of Kolkata Police.” (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the image is from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in 2016.

Upon performing a reverse image search, we found the image in a newspaper clipping shared by several users on X. According to the clipping, which carries the byline of Dainik Bhaskar, the image shows a vendor attacking a head constable after being asked to remove his cart from the road at Ghanta Ghar in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The vendor reportedly let the police officer go only after he apologised.

Congress leader Surendar Rajput, who shared the newspaper clipping, mentioned in the caption that the policeman’s name is Shobharam, while the man seen grabbing the police officer’s jaw is named Dharmendra.

Taking this lead, we conducted a relevant keyword search and found a Dainik Bhaskar report published in May 2016. According to the report, during an anti-encroachment drive in Jodhpur, Crane in-charge and Traffic head constable Shobharam, along with his team, was removing handcarts parked in the middle of the road at Ghanta Ghar. At that time, one of the cart vendors grabbed him by the face and attempted to assault him. The vendor released the constable only after the officer apologised.

The report also mentioned that Sadar Kotwali station officer Pradeep Singh confirmed a case had been registered against the cart vendor—identified as Dharmendra, son of Premchand Mali and a resident of Nagauriya Bera—on charges of assault and obstruction of government duty, based on Shobharam’s complaint. There is no mention that Dharmendra is Bangladeshi.

Therefore, we conclude that the claim that the image shows a Bangladeshi attacking a cop in Kolkata is false.