Fact Check: 2019 video from Bangalore falsely claims to show Dalit youth being tortured in Nalgonda
A video showing a man being thrashed is going viral on social media with the claim that the man is a Dalit youth from Nalgonda in Telangana
By Tejal Sinha Published on 11 Dec 2021 4:51 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A video showing a man being thrashed is going viral on social media with the claim that the man is a Dalit youth from Nalgonda in Telangana who was arrested by the Nalgonda police. It is further being claimed that sub-inspector Narsimhulu Gowda was brutally thrashing the youth.
A Twitter user who shared the video tweeted, "#Casteism Royya Srinivas, a Dalit youth from Nalgonda town Telengana, was arrested and brutally beaten up by the Sub-Inspector Narsimhulu Gowda under Nalgonda police station. #DalitLivesMatter" (sic) (Archive)
Click here to view more tweets.
Fact Check
The claim is false.
NewsMeter performed a Google reverse image search which led us to a video news report uploaded on the YouTube channel of TV5 Kannada on 12 September 2019. The viral video clip can be seen from the 0:41-second mark. According to the video, the Subramanyanagar police officers tortured an accused until the stick broke. The police officer who's can be seen hitting the accused in the video was identified as SI Srikante Gowda.
A report by Times Now News from 12 September 2019 read, "In a shocking case reported from Karnataka's Bangalore, a police sub-inspector was seen hitting an accused with a hockey stick until it broke. This third-degree torture video by the police officer has surfaced online and it was shot in the Subramanya Nagar Police Station near Rajaji Nagar. The accused police personnel was identified as Srikante Gowda, who was seen inhumanly beating an accused. The victim was recently apprehended in a robbery case by the local police. In the phone-shot video, the accused police officer was seen in civil dress and was accompanied by other constables as well." (sic)
The Ancient Times had also reported the incident. It further said the accused inspector was suspended.
Dileep Konatham, the director of digital media of the Telangana government, had replied to one of the tweets and said the video is not from Telangana but from Karnataka. "This video is NOT from Telangana and is a two-year-old video from Karnataka. Request you to delete your tweet as this may lead to confusion," he tweeted.
He had also shared the link to the video news report by TV5 Kannada.
It is therefore evident that the claim made through the viral post is False. A 2019 video of a police officer thrashing a man in Bangalore is being shared as a Dalit man being tortured by the Nalgonda police in Telangana.
