2020 Video of Bareilly Police Thrashing Locals Shared With False Communal Twist

This video dates back to April 2020 and shows Bareilly police attacking locals for enforcing COVID-19 lockdown.

Fact-check: An old video from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, showing police team beating up locals is going viral with false communal angle.

(Photo: The Quint)

A video showing police personnel beating a man with stick on the streets is going viral on social media to claim that it shows Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly police "attacking Muslims who were rioting".

An archive of the post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This video, which dates back to April 2020, shows Bareilly police attacking locals for enforcing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

• It is being shared with a false communal narrative.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a Google reverse image search on some of the viral video's keyframes and this led us to an old video report.

• This was shared by Gazab Samachar on 6 April 2020 and this extended video carried the viral clip.

• The video's description stated that the incident was reported from Karampur Chaudhary village, Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh.

• Taking a cue from here, we looked with keywords and found multiple news reports about the incident.

• An article published by The Quint on 12 April 2020. It stated there was an alleged spat and later a group of villagers came to the Izzatnagar police station and threatened to 'burn it down'.

• This happened when the police trying to ensure that people were abiding by the COVID-19 lockdown norms.

• Speaking about the follow-up action, SP (City) Bareilly, Ravindra Kumar had said “As a retaliatory measure the police went (back) to the village and arrested some persons for trying to hinder work of public servant and flouting Sec 144”.

• We found news reports about the incident in NDTV India, News 18 India from 6 April 2020.

This video is from 2020.

(Source: TQ/Screenshot)

Response from Bareilly police: The official X (formerly Twitter) account of Bareilly police replied to the viral claim and clarified that this incident is from 2020.

Response from the police.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An old video from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, showing a police team beating up locals, is going viral with a false communal angle.

The same video's extended version also went viral in 2022 with a false claim, our fact-check can be read here.

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