A 36-second footage of an Aam Aadmi Party legislator being manhandled by police officials is being shared on social media with captions falsely claiming that the person is Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
BOOM identified the individual as AAP MLA Ajay Dutt, who confirmed to us that the person in the video is indeed him. "This is me in the video, I had gone to Safdarjung hospital to help the family of the Hathras victim when the cops started abusing and misbehaving with me," he said.
The video has gone viral with the false claims in the backdrop of Gandhi's arrest by Uttar Pradesh police, while he was on his way to visit the family of the victim of murder and alleged gangrape of a 19-year-old woman in Hathras.
BOOM received the following video on its helpline number, with a user asking if the person in the video is Rahul Gandhi.
WhatsApp Video 2020-10-03 at 104359 AM from BOOM on Vimeo.
The user also sent the following caption (translated from Malayalam) :
"This is the future Prime Minister of India, his father is the Prime Minister, father's mother is the Prime Minister.
If this is his fate, then what about the common man?"
Original caption:
"ഇത് 🇮🇳ഇന്ത്യയുടെ ഭാവി പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി, അച്ചൻ പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി, അച്ചന്റെ അമ്മ പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി, അച്ചമ്മയുടെ അച്ചൻ പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി
ഇദ്ധേഹത്തിന്റെ ഗതി ഇതാണെങ്കിൽ സാധാരണക്കാരന്റെ കാര്യം എന്ത് പറയാനാ"
We searched for the caption on Facebook, to find the same video being shared multiple times on the platform with the exact same caption.
The exact same post was also shared on Twitter.
Fact Check
We found that the person in the video is not Rahul Gandhi, but an AAP legislator named Ajay Dutt. The video was tweeted out by AAP's official Twitter handle as well, where they claimed that Dutt was manhandled by the police while he was trying to assist the family of the Hathras victim.
Upon hearing the the video closely, we heard someone shout "ACP saab, dictatorship will not work (ए सी पी साहब तानाशाही नहीं चलेग)". Towards the end of the video, we could also hear people chanting "Down with Delhi Police (दिल्ली पुलिस मुर्दाबा)".
BOOM reached out to Dutt and shared the viral video with him, who then confirmed to us that the person in the video is him.
"I heard the police was misbehaving with the family of the Hathras victim at the Safdarjung Hospital, so I reached there to help out. I told them to give the body of the victim to the family, after which the police started misbehaving with me, and then pulled me inside, as you can see in the video," he said.
This incident was also widely reported in the news. A Hindustan Times article carried a quote by a Delhi Police spokesperson, who denied accusations of manhandling Dutt.
"It is quite possible some persons may not have followed the advice of police and entered into an argument. No pushing or physical force was used. Announcements were made on public address systems to maintain social distancing. No other group present at the site of protest has complained of any manhandling," the spokesperson's statement read.