Old Video From UP of Police Thrashing Men Falsely Shared as One From Rajasthan

This video dates back to 2022 and is from Uttar Pradesh.

A video showing a police personnel brutally beating a group of men is going viral on social media to claim that it shows the Rajasthan Police in action.

This comes after a cow tail was reportedly found outside a temple in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara which triggered communal tension in the city.

(Archives of similar claims can be viewed here and here.)

What's the truth?: This video actually dates back to 2022 and is from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the viral video which led us to a report shared by India Today.

• This was shared on 12 June 2022 and it carried screengrabs from the same video.

• The report stated that this viral video showed policemen at Saharanpur Kotwali allegedly thrashing protesters who were accused of rioting and stone-pelting in the district.

• These protests took place to demand the arrest of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.

• It also adds the denial of Saharanpur SSP Akash Tomar about the video being from that district.

• Other reports shared in June 2022 by Times of India mentioned that the UP police agreed to further investigate the allegation of custodial beating.

• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also sought a response from SSP Saharanpur over the allegations of police brutality.

• According to a report shared by NDTV in July 2022, eight men seen in the viral video were cleared of all the charges and released from the jail after the police did not find any evidence against them.

Conclusion: An old and unrelated video of police hitting a group of men is being falsely linked to the Bhilwara incident.

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