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| - Fact Check: DMK leader beating up cop? Nope, the video from UP shows a BJP councillor
FIndia Today Fact Check found that the video is from 2018 and the man in the video was Meerut's BJP councillor.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from 2018 and shows a BJP municipal councillor from Meerut beating up a policeman.
A video allegedly showing a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLA beating up a policeman has been widely shared.
On Facebook, the video was captioned, “Tamil Nadu state DMK MLA Mansoor Mohammed beat up a police inspector on duty. This is the hopeless situation of law and order and police in the state of Tamil Nadu. Then, what about the common man?” The archive of such a post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the video is from 2018 and the man beating up the cop is a Bharatiya Janata Party councillor from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
Our Probe
We performed a reverse search on screengrabs from the viral video and found it shared on the official YouTube channel of Hindustan Times on October 20, 2018. The report was titled: “BJP corporator thrash Sub Inspector, intimidate lady lawyer in Uttar Pradesh.”
As per Hindustan Times, Meerut’s Bharatiya Janta Party municipal councillor Munish Chaudhary was arrested on October 20, 2018, for beating up sub-inspector Sukhpal Singh Panwar following an argument over delayed service at Chaudhary’s restaurant.
ANI UP/Uttarakhand’s official X account also shared the video on the same day. ANI noted that the incident took place on October 19, 2018.
We also found multiple October 2018 news reports, featuring screengrabs from the video. As per India Today, the sub-inspector visited the BJP leader's restaurant with a woman lawyer. The woman reportedly got involved in an argument with a waiter about not serving on time. This later turned into the brawl captured in the viral clip.
The BJP councillor was arrested by the UP police after the video surfaced online but was soon granted bail. It’s noteworthy that some news reports have called the leader "Munish Chaudhary" while others called him “Manish Kumar.”
In 2019, a video went viral about a Congress MLA beating up a cop. At the time, India Today Fact Check debunked this.
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