A video of a man husband getting beaten by his wife when caught in a hotel room with another woman Uttar Pradesh is viral with a false claim that he is Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) district president for Agra.
BOOM found the man in the video is not AAP's district president in Agra, Dheeraj Baghel. We spoke to Baghel who confirmed to us that it was not him in the video and that he had submitted a police complaint about the fake claim.
In the video, a woman can be seen shaming the man and another woman present in the hotel room. The woman seemingly the man's wife also beats him for having an affair. The man later starts apologising as his wife threatens to hand him over to the police. The other woman can be seen sitting on a chair with her face covered, during the whole fight.
Zee Hindustan journalist Tushar Srivastava tweeted the video with a Hindi caption that translates to, "The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Agra district president was beaten up by his wife with slippers when caught romancing in the hotel".
(Original Text in Hindi: आगरा में आम आदमी पार्टी के जिलाध्यक्ष को पत्नी ने चप्पलों से पीटा होटल में रंगरलियां मनाते पत्नी ने पकड़ा जिसके बाद जमकर धुनाई कर दी)
Click here to view the tweet.
Twitter handle "@Being_Humor" amplified the video multiple times with the same false claim of the man being an AAP leader. The handle has in the past claimed he operates the website The Fauxy.
Click here to view the tweet.
BJP UP spokesperson and lawyer Prashant Umrao also made the same fake claim. BOOM has previously fact checked Umrao for sharing communal misinformation. Sudarshan TV journalist Santosh Chauhan also claimed the same about the video.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a related keyword search taking a cue from the captions and found several mainstream news articles such as Amar Ujala, AajTak reporting about the incident. The reports also carried screengrabs from the viral video.
According to an Amar Ujala report published on September 20, 2022, the incident took place on September 19 night when a woman allegedly caught her husband at a hotel room in Agra with another woman. The person seen getting beaten is not a political leader but works at a nursing home in Delhi Gate in Agra, stated the report.
It further reported that the woman was living in her maternal house after being irked by her husband's behaviour and was also keeping an eye on him. On September 19, the woman came to know that her husband is present with his girlfriend in a hotel on Rajahmandi railway station road. The woman then reached the hotel with her daughter and brother and caught her husband.
The information about the dispute was also given to the police but no complaint was registered from either side.
We also came to know the name of the said woman and her husband from an AajTak report published on September 20. The report mentioned the name of the person as Dinesh who was caught by his wife Neelam along with another woman at the hotel. Later, the cops took Dinesh and the woman to the police station after being informed.
BOOM then checked the name of the AAP's Agra district president and identified him as Dheeraj Baghel who left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to join the AAP a month ago.
We also saw a reply to journalist Tushar Srivastava's tweet from a twitter handle named Dheeraj Baghel Agra.
The tweet carried the same video with a caption saying, "I want to inform Santosh Chauhan Sudarshan News that I am Agra District President Dheeraj Baghel. Someone else present there in this video. Whoever you are, do not try to defame me. Action is being taken against you."
Click here to view the tweet.
Further we did not find any similarity between Dheeraj Baghel's image and the person present in the viral video. To confirm, BOOM reached out to Baghel who refuted the viral claim and said that he is not the man getting beaten in the video.
Baghel also added that he had submitted a written complaint to the local police station and the police superintendent regarding the fake claim demanding action against the tweet.