No, This Video Doesn't Show an SP MLA Slapping a Cop on the Road

The incident had occurred in Lucknow, and four people have been arrested in connection with the case.

A 27-second video of a brawl, in which a man is seen slapping a cop, is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows two Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders assaulting a policeman on the road.

The claim goes on to add that one of the leaders is an MLA from "Mukhtarganj", and warns people that if SP is voted to power in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, "this would happen in the state".

However, the claim is completely baseless.

• Firstly, neither is there any constituency in Uttar Pradesh called Mukhtarganj, nor is there an MLA called Salim Haider.

• The incident occurred at Nirala Nagar in Lucknow on 2 December, where a case of road rage led to a confrontation, and one man slapped Sub-Inspector Vinod Kumar, posted at Kotwali Pilibhit in UP. Four people were arrested in connection with the case.

CLAIM

The video is being shared with the claim, originally in Hindi, that reads, "ये हैं मुख्तारगंज से सपा विधायक सलीम हैदर साथ मे रामकृपाल यादव ,कैसे बीच सड़क पर पुलिस कर्मी को थप्पड़ मार रहे हैं,यदि सपा सरकार आ गयी तो क्या हाल होगा ?? पुलिस वालों को भी चाहिए कि उ प्र में समाजवादी पार्टी को हराने के लिए पूरा जोर लगा दो..!!!"

(Translation: This is SP MLA from Mukhtarganj, Salim Haider, along with Ramkripal Yadav, who is slapping a police personnel on the road. What will happen if the SP government comes? Policemen also want to work hard to defeat SP in UP.)

The video is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim, and the archived links can be seen here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

With the help of InVid, a video verification tool, we extracted several keyframes from the video and conducted a reverse image search on some of them.

A Google reverse image search result led us to an article in a media website Time8 published on 3 December that talked about the incident, which reportedly occurred at Nirala Nagar in Lucknow.

Using relevant keywords, we found news reports about the incident, reported in many Hindi and English dailies.

The Times of India (TOI) report from 3 December read that the four accused involved in slapping the policeman were arrested, hours after the video went viral on social media.

The report also carried a screenshot of the video, and noted that a Sub-Inspector identified as Vinod Kumar, who was seen in a mild inebriated state, was heckled by the men at a wedding function over a road rage issue on Thursday night, 2 December.

Another report by The Times of India mentioned that an FIR was registered by Kumar in Hassanganj police station against the four accused – Ashish Shukla, Pranjul Mathur, Priyank Mathur, Pravendra Kumar, and unidentified others – for assaulting a public servant, dacoity and intimidation.

Further, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, North, Prachi Singh told TOI that Shukla worked for an online private company, Mathur was a lawyer practising in Delhi, Pravendra Kumar was a BTC teacher, and Pranjul was appearing for competitive exams.

The incident was also covered by Hindi dailies Amar Ujala, Lallantop, Aaj Tak.

WHAT ABOUT THE 'MLA FROM MUKHTARGANJ'?

There are 403 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, and not one of them is called Mukhtarganj. We also looked for the two names mentioned in the claim – Salim Haider and Ramkripal Yadav – but couldn't find any MLA by these names.

Clearly, the claim that an SP MLA had slapped a policeman in full public view is false.

Such claims have been doing the rounds in the run-up to the Assembly elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which are due in 2022. We have been fact-checking several such claims, and you can read our reports here.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)