A video showing a group of people beating up some men is being shared with a claim that a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA was thrashed in Bihar’s Patna.
However, we found that the viral video is a combination of two old videos and both of them are from West Bengal.
CLAIM
The claim along with the video reads: “ब्रेकिंग न्यूज़ बिहार. बिहार के स्मार्टसिटी पटना में भाजपा बिधायक के लात जुटा के मसीन में जम कर हुई जनता के द्वारा कुटाई रोड नही तो वोट नही को लेकर हुआ था विवाद नेता जी केद्वारा गलत सब्दो के कारण हो गई कुटाई”
(Translation: Breaking News Bihar. BJP MLA was brutally thrashed in Bihar’s Smart City Patna. The dispute was about if there is no road, then there will be no vote. The politician used inappropriate words and hence was beaten up.)
The video shared by one Facebook user Dinesh Ray had garnered over 5 lakh views and 17,000 shares at the time of publishing the article.
The video is being circulated on Twitter as well with the same narrative.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found that the viral video is a combination of two separate videos, with both of them being from West Bengal and of old incidents. Let’s look at these one by one:
VIDEO 1
We searched on YouTube using keywords “BJP leader heckled” and found a clearer version of the viral video uploaded by media outlet Prabhat Khabar in 2017.
The description of the video mentioned that it showed the attack on BJP State President Dilip Ghosh and his supporters in Darjeeling.
According to an article published by The Hindu in 2017, Ghosh and his supporters were allegedly assaulted by a group of locals in the Darjeeling Hills on 5 October 2017 while he was on a two-day visit to address a meeting.
Ghosh had then alleged that supporters of rebel Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Binoy Tamang were behind the attack. The Quint had earlier debunked the visuals with a different claim in 2019.
VIDEO 2
We searched on YouTube using keywords “BJP leader attacked” and found a video uploaded by ‘ANI News Official’ with the caption: ‘BJP leader Babul Supriyo attacked by TMC supporters’.
The visuals seen in the viral video are same as that seen in the ANI video from 0:13- 0:17 seconds which was uploaded in 2016.
The Quint, too, had then reported about the incident wherein Union Minister Babul Supriyo was allegedly attacked by a mob in Asansol, West Bengal in October 2016.
Supriyo’s vehicle was stopped allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters near Asansol’s BNR More and agitators pelted stones at him. According to reports, the mob even vandalised his vehicle and attacked two other BJP supporters who were accompanying Supriyo.
Evidently, a compilation of two old incidents is going viral with the false claim that a BJP MLA was attacked in Bihar’s Patna.
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