A picture of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has gone viral on social media accusing him of man-handling an on-duty police officer.
The viral image is from the scuffle that took place on the Yamuna Expressway on 1 October, when Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were detained by the UP police on their way to Hathras to meet the family of the 19-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped.
However, the viral image is being shared with a misleading narrative that does not provide the full context of the incident.
CLAIM
The image is being shared with the caption, “Rahul Gandhi holding collar of an on-duty policeman.”
User Rishi Bagree’s tweet had amassed over 11,300 likes and 4,200 retweets at the time of writing this article.
BJP’s MLA from Dhamangaon Railway in Amaravati, Pratap Arunbhau Adsad also shared the image.
Users also shared the image with the same claim on Facebook.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The viral image is a screenshot taken from a video uploaded by the Congress’ Twitter account.
The video was uploaded on 1 October when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had been stopped by the UP Police from visiting the Hathras victim’s family. His detention led to a scuffle, and the police arrested Gandhi under Section 188 of the IPC.
Starting at time stamp 00:12 it can be clearly seen that Gandhi had not held the collar of the policeman blocking his way, but pushed him towards his left while trying to move forward.
The Missing Context
The screenshot from the clip is being used to claim that Rahul Gandhi held the collar of the police officer.
The viral image also fails to provide the full facts of the incident which took place on the Yamuna Expressway. The visuals from the scene also show Rahul Gandhi being pushed to the ground during the scuffle with the police officers.
A video of the same can be seen in Times of India’s report, headlined, “Rahul Gandhi manhandled, falls during scuffle with cops while marching towards Hathras”
The fall was also reported by other media outlets including NDTV, IndiaToday and Zee News.
ABP also showed visuals of Rahul Gandhi being manhandled by the cops and shouting, “मारो मुझे मारो!” (Translation: “Hit me!”)
The ABP clip was also shared by AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Evidently, a viral image of Rahul Gandhi from the Yamuna Expressway scuffle is being shared without the full context to mislead the people.
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