Fact Check: Old clip of Sharmila in physical altercation with police falsely linked to her joining Congress ranks

Hyderabad: YS Sharmila, the daughter of former chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy, joined the Congress party on January 4. She also merged her YSR Telangana Party into the grand old party. The Congress made her the president of the party’s Andhra Pradesh state unit on January 16.

Now, a video containing two clips is circulating on social media, with the claim that it shows Sharmila creating ‘hooliganism’ after joining Congress. The first clip shows Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge presenting her with a scarf and the second shows her in an altercation with police personnel.

“This is not Congress’s gamcha, this is a license for hooliganism (translated from Hindi),” wrote an X user who shared the video.

Several Facebook users also shared the video claiming the same. Click here, here and here to view the posts.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading. The first clip shows Sharmila officially joining the Congress party on January 4, 2024, in the presence of Mallikarjun Kharge, and the second is from April 2023.

We ran a keyword search and found the extended version of the first clip, which showed Mallikarjun Kharge presenting a scarf to Sharmila, published on the Congress party’s YouTube channel published January 4, 2024. The caption stated that Sharmila joined Congress in the presence of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.

We also found the video published by ABP News and Times Now on the same date.

Upon a reverse image search of the keyframes of the second clip, we found it posted on X, posted by the official handle of Hyderabad Times of India on April 24, 2023. The caption stated Sharmila had manhandled police personnel while she was visiting the SIT office over the TSPSC question paper leak case in Hyderabad. It also mentioned that she was detained to stop her from visiting the SIT office.

We also found the video published by NDTV on the same date with the caption stating that Sharmila had slapped cops at a paper leak protest.

Another video report from NDTV from the same date, which showed the same visual, stated that Sharmila was sent for 14 days judicial remand after she manhandled police personnel during a protest.

Hence, we conclude that the video showing Sharmila manhandling police personnel is from April 2023 and not after she joined the Congress party on January 4, 2024.