Fact Check: Old videos passed off as attack on NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad after controversial remark on Lord Ram

Hyderabad: Three First Information Reports (FIRs) were lodged against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jitendra Awhad in Mumbai and Palghar district after his controversial remarks that Lord Ram was a ‘non-vegetarian’.

Now, a video is in circulation on social media with the claim that Hindus beat him after his controversial remark on Lord Ram. The beginning of the video shows chaos on a public stage where people can be seen beating up a person and ends with Jitendra Awhad walking down a flight of stairs in a wet shirt.

“NCP’s Jitendra Awhad, who used abusive language about Lord Shri Ram Ji, was beaten up by his own workers in his own office (translated from Hindi),” wrote an X user who shared the video.

“The one who abused Ram is NCP MLA Jitendra, after which the conscious Hindus reminded him of his Chhathi milk. It should be like this everywhere, only then will these people improve,” wrote another X user who shared the video.

NewsMeter found that both clips in the video are old and are falsely linked to Awhad’s remark.

We ran a keyword search on Awhad being attacked after his controversial remark but did not come across any media report. Had he been attacked the media would have reported it.

On performing a reverse image search on the keyframes of the first clip, we found a video report by India Today published on July 21, 2015, which showed similar chaos on the stage. As per the report, the meeting was disrupted by Shiv Pratishthan workers in Sangli, Maharashtra, when Awhad questioned the Maharashtra government’s decision to honour Baba Saheb Purandare with the Maharashtra Bhushan award and made controversial remarks on the founder of Shiv Pratishthan, Sambhaji Bhide. India Today’s Mumbai Bureau Chief Sahil Joshi can be heard saying that no one was seriously injured in the entire incident, and the police had also arrested five workers of Shiv Pratishthan.

We also found the incident reported by IndiaTV, on July 20, 2015, in a report titled ‘Ruckus Created During NCP Leader’s Speech In Maharashtra.’ The report showed the same visuals as seen in the viral video.

Times of India and Aaj Tak had also reported the incident with the same details.

Upon a reverse image search of the frames showing Awhad in a wet shirt, we found a YouTube shorts video showing the same visual published by a channel named Jitendra Awhad on November 27, 2023. The video doesn’t seem to show any assault on the NCP leader.

The controversial remark on Lord Ram was made by Awhad on January 3, 2024. Since the viral videos are old, we conclude that they are being falsely linked to the current controversy sparked by the NCP leader.