Two photos which show a cop thrashing a man is being circulated with a false claim that it is the Maharashtra Police thrashing senior journalist and Republic TV Founder Arnab Goswami, who was arrested on Wednesday, 4 November, in connection with a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
But in reality, this photograph is from a video which went viral in January 2020, and it shows police personnel at a police station in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, thrashing a man, identified as Sumit Goswami, who was brought in on charges of mobile piracy.
CLAIM
The photos were shared by BJP leader Gaurav Goel on his official Twitter account with a claim, “Can't believe he is #ArnabGoswami. If it's real.....Maharashtra Govt has asked for the dooms day (sic).”
The same was shared by multiple other users on Twitter.
The photos were shared with the same claim on Facebook as well.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a reverse image search on one of the pictures, we came across a news reports on News18 which stated that incident happened in Deoria, where a man was thrashed inside the police station by three police personnel, including the chief constable.
As the video went viral, the Deoria Police had acknowledged the incident and the three policemen were suspended.
The Quint had also reported on the incident back in January. Clearly, an old incident is being shared in the light of Goswami’s arrest.
(With inputs from SM Hoax Slayer)
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