Fact Check: Old video of scuffle between BJP, SP members falsely linked to 2024 LS elections
The video shows SP legislator Rakesh Pratap Singh slapping Deepak Singh, the husband of Rashmi Singh, a BJP municipal election candidate.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 6 April 2024 2:25 PM GMT
Screengrabs from the viral video. (Source: X/@radhika_yadav07)
Claim: The video shows the public thrashing a BJP leader ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Fact: The claim is misleading. The video shows SP legislator Rakesh Pratap Singh slapping Deepak Singh, the husband of Rashmi Singh, a BJP municipal election candidate, at the Gauriganj Kotwali police station in Amethi in 2023.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, social media users are taking a dig at the BJP’s slogan ‘Abki Baar, 400 Paar’. Users are sharing old videos linking it to general elections.
In this context, a video of a scuffle between two people and police trying to stop them is being shared with the claim that a BJP leader was recently thrashed at a police station in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
“Now you will see the same scene all over India. BJP leader thrashed in Amethi. Look at the condition #AbkiBar400Par,” wrote an X user while sharing the video. (Archive)
Several X users have shared the video claiming the same. (Click here, here and here to see the archived versions of the posts.)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim misleading as the video shows a Samajwadi Party legislator and his aides thrashing a BJP leader's husband in 2023.
Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found an Outlook report of May 10, 2023, titled “On Camera, Samajwadi Party MLA Thrashes BJP Leader's Husband At Amethi Police Station.” The report carried a screengrab of the video.
According to the magazine, the video shows Samajwadi Party (SP) legislator Rakesh Pratap Singh slapping Deepak Singh, the husband of Rashmi Singh, a BJP municipal election candidate, at the Gauriganj Kotwali police station in Amethi. It also mentioned dozens of policemen and bystanders tried to intervene but failed to stop the attacker.
An NDTV report of May 10, 2023, which carried the extended version of the viral video, also stated that Samajwadi Party legislator Rakesh Pratap Singh assaulted Deepak Singh, the husband of Rashmi Singh inside the Gauriganj Kotwali police station in Amethi district. The channel mentioned that the incident occurred in front of policemen and they failed to stop Pratap Singh.
News 9, Hindustan Times, and India Today also reported the incident with the same details.
Hence, the video dates back to 2023 and does not show the thrashing of a BJP leader in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. We conclude that the claim is misleading.
