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| - A disturbing video of a woman being pushed to the ground and hit with a stick as she speaks on live TV about an attack on her has resurfaced with false claims linking it to recent Sandeshkhali protests in West Bengal.
BOOM found that the incident occurred in Barasat, West Bengal in 2018. The video shows an attack on a BJP supporter by a local leader from the Trinamool Congress during a demonstration against previous clashes in Islampur.
The video is circulating in the backdrop of latest allegations by several women of Sandeshkhali, a village in south Bengal, against local Trinamool Congress leaders. Women from the area have alleged that local leaders Shibu Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar of the ruling party of the state have sexually exploited them on multiple occasions; they further accused of encountering brutality when they spoke out against these atrocities. A fact-finding report of the National Commission for Women (NCW) highlighted disturbing testimonies from women, revealing widespread fear and systematic abuse by the local leaders. Meanwhile, in a statement on February 14, 2024, the West Bengal police mentioned that they had not received any allegations of women being raped in connection with the incident.
A Facebook user shared the video along with the caption, "A woman trying to speak out to media about Sandeshkhali is attacked on live camera. Just imagine, what all must have happened and must be happening in reality in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal".
Trigger warning: The video contains disturbing footage. Discretion advised.
Click here to view the post.
Another verified X user shared the video with the hashtag '#SandeshkhaliHorror' and wrote, "For all the Liberals who say everything is alright in WB, there is no atrocity on women should look at this! Woman attacked on live camera!! Imagine what goes behind the scenes that isn’t recorded or reported".
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
BOOM first broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search on them. The search led us to various X posts from 2018 carrying the same video; captions stated that a Trinamool Congress leader attacked a woman named Nilima Dey Sarkar on live TV.
We then ran a related keyword search and found an NDTV news bulletin carrying the same visuals uploaded on its official YouTube channel on October 1, 2018.
The visuals can be watched starting from the 28-second mark in the video.
The news bulletin was uploaded with the description, "The cameras had already been rolling when the appalling violence unfolded - not once but twice. A supporter of the BJP - a woman - is viciously kicked and thrown to the ground by Trinamool leaders and activists during a protest with startling impunity - first in the presence of cops and then in front of a TV news crew."
According to a Hindustan Times article dated October 1, 2018, the 48-year-old woman named Nilima Dey Sarkar was kicked and thrown to the ground twice within a span of 15 minutes on September 26. The incident took place at the Barasat rail crossing during a Bengal bandh organised by the BJP to protest the alleged police firing in West Bengal's Islampur which happened a week ago.
The report quoted Sarkar as saying, “I was kicked by Arshaduzzaman, who is a local panchayat leader. Within a few minutes, one of the ruling party workers who were out in the streets to oppose the bandh, hit me on the head with a stick and threw me on the ground. I was attacked for the second time when some TV journalists present at the spot asked me about the assault."
On October 1, 2018, Zee 24 Ghanta, a Bengali news outlet, reported that the BJP supporter took legal action by approaching a court.
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