An old disturbing video showing a man assaulting a woman is viral on social media with captions falsely linking the incident to Uttar Pradesh police.
BOOM found that the viral video is around two years old and the incident is from Jharkhand, and not Uttar Pradesh as claimed in viral posts.
Also Read: 2019 Video Of Bull Being Killed By Bulldozer In Maharashtra Viral As UP
The 16-second-long video shows a man dragging a woman by her hair, slapping and later abusing her. Two uniformed policemen can be seen standing as silent spectators in the background.
A Hindi caption with the video shared on Facebook translates to 'Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Police administration is boosting respect of women. This kind of act has become common under BJP Government'.
The post uses hashtags with the name of UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
BOOM has not included the video here due to its disturbing content and strong language.
(Hindi: नारी सम्मान को बुलन्द करता मुख्यमंत्री योगी आदित्यनाथ का पुलिस प्रशासन....! मौजूदा भाजपा सरकार में ऐसे प्रकरण प्रतिदिन आम हो गए हैं! #ShameOnBjpGovernment #ShameOnYogiAdityanath #NoMoreBJP)
Click here and here to watch the video. Viewers' discretion is advised.
Also Read: Video Of Murdered Woman In A Suitcase In Uttrakhand Peddled With Communal Spin
Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search and found a video report uploaded on YouTube channel of News 18 Bihar Jharkhand on July 27, 2020. The video, containing the same visuals, is titled in Hindi translating to 'CM Hemant Soren serious on the issue of woman being beaten, tweeted - shameful act, this cannot be tolerated'.
(Hindi: युवती की पिटाई मामले में CM Hemant गंभीर, ट्वीट कर लिखा- घटना शर्मनाक है, बर्दाश्त के काबिल नहीं है)
Taking cue from this, we searched with related keywords and found a news report published in The Telegraph on July 27, 2020.
The report stated that on July 22, 2020 Harish Pathak, then officer-in-charge of Barhet police station in Sahebganj, Jharkhand, assaulted the 20-year old woman which sparked outrage on social media as the police station falls under the constituency of Jharkhand's CM.
The report mentions that Pathak had summoned the woman to the police station to record her statement in connection with her kidnapping case filed by her mother against one Ramu Mandal. However, Pathak lost his temper when the woman dismissed the complaint and told him that she was in love with Ramu.
On July 25, the woman lodged a complaint against Pathak with the superintendent of police, Sahebganj. Pathak was eventually suspended after the video of the incident went viral.
Hindi news outlets News 11 Bharat, Bhaskar and Prabhat Khabar also reported the incident.
Also Read: Old Video From Switzerland Shared As Kolkata With False Communal Spin
Hemant Soren had quoted a tweet sharing the viral video on July 27, 2020 asking for strict action against the accused official.