An old video showing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker from Chennai being thrashed is viral online as recent and is being falsely connected to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
BOOM found that the video dates back to July 2023 and shows the District Secretary of BJP's IT and Social Media Cell in Chennai being beaten up by members of his own party.
The video shows a CCTV footage where a man in a green shirt is being beaten up by a group of people. They pin him against the wall and tear his shirt after which a police officer arrives and pacifies the situation.
A user on X shared the video with the caption, "*Gruesome attack on BJP IT & Social Media Cell District Secratary* Shri. Rajesh Biju today evening in front of BJP functionary's house... Rajesh is undergoing treatment in Sri Chakra Hospital, Nanganallur, Chennai East. @annamalai_k @amarprasadreddy @Selvakumar_IN @VinojBJP"
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The video is also being shared on Facebook with similar claims.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the video dates back to 2023 and shows an altercation between two BJP members in Chennai; it is unrelated to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
We watched the viral video closely and noticed that it carried the date '31/07/2023'.
The caption also mentioned that the incident took place in Chennai and shows the District Secretary of BJP's IT cell in Chennai, Rajesh Biju, being thrashed.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a search for the incident using Tamil keywords and found a report published by ETV Bharat Tamil Nadu on August 1, 2023. The report's headline, translated roughly from Tamil to English reads, "BJP General Secretary Drunk Video Issue; CCTV Footage Of Attacking The Person Who Released It!"
The video used in this report was an exact match to the viral video.
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According to this report, the video shows BJP General Secretary from Chennai East, S Subbiah beating up the IT division District Secretary, Rajesh Biju, along with his nephew and BJP Zonal President Jawahar Armstrong. The men suspected Biju of leaking a video of S Subbiah drinking, which subsequently went viral online.
Another report by Kamadenu from August 1 states that Biju sought treatment at the Chromepet Government Hospital and the case was being investigated by Palavanthangal police.
We also found that the verified handle of the Chennai Police replied to one of the viral posts sharing the video and clarified that it was old. The now deleted post carrying the viral video was shared by Megh Updates, an account BOOM has fact-checked several times in the past.
The Chennai Police's reply read, "The video pertains to a fight that occurred due to personal dispute between two factions of a political party @ Nanganallur and which happened on 31.07.2023 NOT yesterday. In this regard, a case was registered in the jurisdictional police station and proper legal action was taken. Do not share unverified information. Strict legal action will be taken against those spreading wrong and unverified information."
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