No, a BJP Member Did Not Hit a Christian Priest in Bengaluru

A video of a church member assaulting a pastor in Telangana is being recycled and given a communal spin.

CLAIM: A Christian priest was assaulted by a member of the BJP at a church in Bengaluru.

RATING: False

FACT: The pastor was assaulted by a member of the church who had been expelled.

A video from Bengaluru, where a priest is seen being beaten up, has gone viral on social media with messages that claim the priest was attacked by a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, BOOM has been able to verify that the video is, in fact, from an incident that happened in Telangana on 27 May, where a church member beat up the pastor over an internal issue.

The video shows a Christian priest being a beaten by a man standing in the congregation line. The man confronts the priest, then grabs his mic and starts assaulting him. The service is thrown into disarray as members of the church rush to intervene and stop the attack.

The video has been shared over WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter over the past 48 hours.

@TimesNow Priest is beaten by bjp goons in CSI, church Bangalore...Please verify and take action...

— neutral (@TheFrenchBeard) May 31, 2018

BJP hitting priest in Bangalore @romandsouza @AtomicBlow @inclusivemind @Cow__Momma @PMOIndia @Shehzad_Ind @Subytweets @Ashudarling73 @PMOIndia @TimesNow @UN @sardesairajdeep @inquestioner @dhruv_rathee @BJP4India can someone please verify and take action please ! pic.twitter.com/6aSqI4shwT

— True Values (@ValuesTrue) May 31, 2018

While many have shared the video thinking it is recent and from Bengaluru, BOOM was able to trace the video to a TV9 Telugu story from 27 May, which states that the incident took place in a CSI-run church in Bhadradri Kothagudem in Telangana (CSI stands for Church of South India).

Church father attacked by Christian members in Bhadradri Kothagudem https://t.co/1CPHWbdowB

— TV9 Telugu (@TV9Telugu) May 27, 2018

BOOM also spoke to a member of the CSI Dornakal Diocese under whose jurisdiction the said church falls.

Reverend R Israel Reddy, ministerial secretary, said Pastor Anand Rao of the Christ Church in Bhadrachalam town was beaten by a member of the community on 27 May.

“The man who assaulted Pastor Rao is Shantakumar Kolapudi who was till last year the secretary of the church committee. We expelled him from the committee last year due to some problems he created. On Sunday (the day of the incident) after Pastor Rao delivered the morning sermon, Kolapudi approached the pastor and asked him about the expulsion and asked when will he be reinstated. When the pastor did not give a satisfactory answer, Kolapudi hit him with a microphone,” explained Reddy.

He added that Kolapudi is a regular church goer and no extremists groups or political party members attacked the pastor.

(This article was originally published on BOOM and has been republished here with permission)