Old Photo of Man Assaulting a Cop in Rajasthan Shared With a False Communal Spin

The image is from Jodhpur when a hawker, identified as Dharmendra, assaulted a police personnel.

A photo is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows a Muslim man assaulting a policeman in Jodhpur. The man can be seen grabbing the police personnel violently by his jaw.

While the photo is old and hasn't been tampered with, we found that the claims identifying the man as a Muslim are false.

We spoke to Shobharam, the policeman in the photo, who clarified that the photo dates back to May 2016 and was taken when the cops had gone to vacate the 'Ghanta Ghar' market area in Jodhpur. The man, identified as one Dharmendra, assaulted him following the incident.

CLAIM

Sharing the photo, one user wrote, "Scared MusIim of India with a Policeman."

Another user took a dig at the Muslims and wrote, "18% पर ये हाल है, 30% पर क्या होगा?".

(Translation: This is the situation at 18%, what will happen at 30%?")

Archives of similar posts on Facebook and Twitter can be found here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a reverse image search on Google, we came across a Facebook post from 4 June 2020.

The post carried a newspaper clipping, along with the viral image, and it specified the location as 'Ghanta Ghar' market, Jodhpur.

Taking a clue from this, we conducted a keyword search on Google using 'Ghanta Ghar Jodhpur police attacked' in Hindi and found an article published on Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar in 2016.

The article noted that the incident happened in May 2016 and identified the police personnel as Head Constable, Shobharam.

The Quint then contacted Shobharam, who is currently posted as an assistant sub inspector with Jodhpur police, who told us that the claims with which the photo is being shared are false.

"The incident dates back to May 2016 when a few hawkers near Ghanta Ghar were asked to vacate the area. One hawker named Dharmendra started abusing and assaulting me."

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Shobharam added that the accused was not a Muslim and was later arrested for the incident.

Evidently, an old image from an incident that happened in Jodhpur in 2016 is being shared to push a false anti-Muslim narrative.

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