A 2011 video showing Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan being attacked in his chambers is doing the rounds on social media with a false claim that Bhushan was attacked after the Supreme Court held him guilty of contempt.
On 14 August, the apex court found Bhushan guilty of contempt. Before pronouncing him guilty, the court asked him to tender an apology and he refused. Again, on 25 August, the court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence.
THE CLAIM
The aforementioned video was shared on Twitter by Journalist Shobhaa De with a caption saying “Shocking! Disgraceful. (sic)” after which it found its way to Facebook.
At the time of filing this report, De’s tweet had garnered over 5,000 likes and 2,300 retweets.
WHAT WE FOUND
We found that the viral clip is from 2011 when Bhushan was attacked in his chambers by three men while he was being interviewed by Times Now.
A Google search using the keywords “Prashant Bhushan beaten up” directed us to several news reports from 2011.
A report by NDTV mentioned that the provocation was over a statement made by him on supporting a referendum in Kashmir.
Another report by the Economic Times said that two people – Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga and Vishnu Verma – were arrested in connection with the case.
Bagga, now a BJP spokesperson, contested the 2020 Delhi Assembly election from the Hari Nagar constituency.
Evidently, an old video of Bhushan being assaulted has been revived without context.
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