2020 Video of Cops Thrashing Woman in West Bengal Falsely Shared as Recent One

(Trigger Warning: Physical violence)

A video showing a uniformed police personnel hitting a woman on the streets of West Bengal is being shared to claim that it is a recent incident.

• The claim also states that Muslim men are thrashing women publicly along with the police officers.

Some context: This claims comes in the back drop of the Sandeshkhali protests, in which women of the village alleged sexual harassment, land grab and intimidation by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders.I

(Similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This video dates back to 2020 and is from Baduria, North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

• It is being falsely linked to the protests in Sandeshkhali.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the viral video and this led us to a longer version of the same video.

• This was shared by news agency Asian News International (ANI) in X (formerly Twitter) on 22 April 2020.

• We also noticed ANI's logo on the viral video.

• The caption stated that this video shows a clash between the locals and the police personnel after the locals "blocked the road alleging improper distribution of ration material" amid the coronavirus lockdown in Baduria city of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

• Taking a cue, we ran a relevant keyword search on Google and came across several reports about it.

• We also found The Quint's report from 22 April 2020 which carried a screenshot from the same viral video.

• Local sources told The Quint that people turned on the cops after after allegedly not receiving relief materials amidst the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, when police arrived.

• In the process, an officer-in-charge of the local police station was hit on the head. The police, thereafter, lathicharged the crowd.

Conclusion: An old video of the police hitting a woman in West Bengal during coronavirus lockdown is being falsely linked to Sandeshkhali.

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