Fact Check: Old video from Karnataka, NOT 'third-degree' torture for morphing Andhra CM Jagan’s images
The viral video is from an incident that occurred five years ago in Karnataka.
By Sunanda Naik Published on 5 March 2024 5:32 PM IST
Fact Check: Old video from Karnataka, NOT 'third-degree' torture for morphing Andhra CM Jagan’s imagesHyderabad: A video depicting a group of men brutally assaulting another man with a hockey stick is circulating widely on social media. Notably, one of the frames shows a man in a police uniform observing the act. The video is accompanied by the claim that the victim is a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) worker who was apprehended for creating manipulated images of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The caption accompanying the video reads, ‘CM Mida Morphs vestunaru ani kukkani kottaru TDP valani,’ loosely translated as ‘TDP person is beaten like a dog for making morphed images against CM.’
Similar claims can be seen here and here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim to be false. The viral video is from an incident that occurred five years ago in Karnataka.
Through a reverse image search, we found the same video uploaded to the YouTube channels of India Today and ETV Andhra Pradesh on September 13, 2019. The video uploaded by ETV Andhra Pradesh is titled, ‘“Eve Teasing | Suspect Subjected to Third-degree Torture | Inhuman Bengaluru cop under scrutiny.”
Taking this as a cue, we performed a keyword search and found the same video and screenshots used by multiple local media outlets such as Bangalore Mirror, Udayavani, Kalinga TV, The Ancient TV, and Varthabharati in their reports on September 12, 2019.
According to these reports, the video captures Sub-Inspector Sreekanthe Gowda at Bengaluru's Subramanyanagar assaulting the accused, Yashwant, in response to a complaint filed by a victim who accused Yashwant of sexual and mental harassment. The victim, a 21-year-old woman working at a parking complex in Bengaluru, reported regular harassment by her coworker Yashwant. The complaint was lodged on May 10, 2019. Although the exact date of the video is unknown, Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, upon learning of the incident during an interaction program at Vijaya Karnataka, ordered the suspension of Sub-Inspector Sreekanthe Gowda.
This video was also shared by Bangalore Mirror and Times of India on X.
Lastly, we also found the same incident reported by mainstream media outlets such as the Scroll, Times of India and Times Now on September 13, 2019. As per the Times Now report, the woman claimed Yeshavanth stopped troubling her after the ‘“police treatment”.
Hence, it is evident that the video in question is old and not from Andhra Pradesh.
