Fact Check: Was Kerala’s excise minister forcibly arrested for abusing police?
A video has been circulating on social media alleging that the excise minister of Kerala MB Rajesh was forcibly arrested for abusing the police.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 30 May 2024 9:10 AM GMT
Claim: The video shows Kerala’s excise minister being forcefully arrested for verbally insulting the police.
Fact: The claim is false. The political leader featured in the video is Ernakulam District Congress president Mohammad Shias, not excise minister MB Rajesh.
Hyderabad: A video has been circulating on social media alleging that the excise minister of Kerala MB Rajesh was forcibly arrested for abusing the police.
A Facebook user posted the video and wrote, “Kerala police dragged the Excise Minister of Kerala, the police did this because he was scolding the police..... Is it possible in Karnataka???” (Archive)
A similar post can be seen here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The person in the viral video is not the Kerala excise minister but Ernakulam District Congress president Mohammad Shias.
The video contains two clips: the first clip shows a man in a white shirt and dhoti abusing Kerala police and in the second clip the same man can be seen being arrested by the police.
A reverse image search of the first part of the video led us to multiple news reports which identified the man as Kerala Ernakulam District Congress president Mohammad Shias.
We found a report by Mediaone uploaded on its YouTube channel on March 4, 2024, with the headline, ‘Ernakulam DCC president Mohammad Shias insults police officer. (translated from Malayalam)’.
we can see the part where Shias was seen verbally abusing the officers. The visuals can be seen from the timestamp of 3 to 6 seconds.
A report by Madhyamam, a Malayalam news portal, contained similar details. According to the report, published on March 4, 2024, “Indira Ramakrishnan was killed in an attack by a wild elephant at 9:30 am in Kanjiraveli, Neriyamangalam. Congress leaders MP Dean Kuriakos, MLA Mathew Kuzalnadan and Congress Ernakulam District president Mohammad Shias led the protest. Indira’s family demanded a post-mortem. During the procession, when the police tried to take away the body, a verbal altercation broke out between the activists and the police. Mohammed Shias intercepted the deputy SP. (translated from Malayalam)”
We also found the visuals of the same incident reported by Malayalam news channels, 24 News on March 4, 2024, and by News 18 Kerala on March 5, 2024.
According to a report on March 5, 2024, by Mathrubhumi English, “Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan and Ernakulam District Congress Committee president Mohammed Shiyas were arrested in connection with alleged untoward incidents during a protest in Kothamangalam carrying the dead body of the elderly woman who was trampled to death by a wild elephant on Monday.”
The second part of the video was found on a Malayalam news channel Reporter TV. The visuals can be seen from the timestamp of 38 to 48 seconds. According to this, Shias was arrested forcefully and triggered the protest where Congress members clashed with the police. Later, police lathi charged and arrested members and leaders including MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan.
Hence, the claim that Kerala police forcefully arrested the Kerala excise minister is false.
