Viral Video of ‘BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay’ Beating Dalit Man is False

The man who is being assaulted in the video is Hardik Bharwad, a resident of Nava Vadaj, Ahmedabad.

Screenshot of the video making rounds on social media . 

(Photo: Altered by the Quint )

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CLAIM

A video showing a man mercilessly beaten by three men has been making rounds on social media with the caption, “B.j.p. विधायक अनिल उपाध्याय की इस हरकत पर क्या कहेगे मोदी जी,इस video को इतना वायरल करो की ये पूरा हिन्दुस्तान देख सके दलित पिछड़े अलीशान कार में नहीं घूम नहीं सकते हैं (sic)” which loosely translates to:

“What would Modi ji say about what BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay can be seen doing in this video, make this video viral so that everyone can see what he has been up to, can Dalits not be seen driving a luxurious car?”

Thus the post alleges that BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay beat up a Dalit man for driving a luxurious car.

The post is going viral on Facebook.(Photo: Screenshot from Facebook)

The video has gone viral on Twitter with the same narrative (Photo: Screenshot from Twitter)

TRUE OR FALSE

On conducting a reverse image search of one of the key frames from the video, it was ascertained that the man in the video is not Anil Upadhyay.

Screenshot of the reverse image search conducted by The Quint.(Photo Courtesy: Yandex.com)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The Quint found out that the video is from 2017, of an incident that took place in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The man who is assaulted in the video is Hardik Bharwad a resident of Nava Vadaj, Ahmedabad.

According to a report by The Times of India , the video is from 19 March 2017 after Bharwad’s attempt to assault his wife Ratan at her at her home, her cousins and relatives caught him as he was approaching his car and beat him up. The group also damaged Bharwad’s car, as can be seen the video.

The screenshot of the news report on the incident(Photo: Screenshot from Mumbai Mirror)

Therefore the people assaulting the man from the video are not from BJP or headed by BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay.

Further, it has been earlier established that there is no MLA named Anil Upadhyay, who belongs to the BJP.

The narrative in the post is false and is made to spite negative feelings about the person and the party he is associated with, which could impact the voters during the crucial time of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections of 2019.

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