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| - Fact Check: 2016 video of lady constable complaining about senior officer's casteism given false 'love jihad' spin
Video of a lady police constable speaking to the media was circulated on social media claiming that she spoke about Islam's domination in India.
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India Today Fact Check
In this video from 2016, the lady constable spoke about the abuse and casteist comments she received from a senior officer in the Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh.
A video of a lady police constable speaking to the media was circulated on social media with the claim that she spoke about Islam’s domination in India. We received several requests to fact-check the video on our WhatsApp tipline.
In the video, what the constable said was inaudible. However, a voiceover could be heard talking about how Hindu women were allegedly being lured into marriage by Muslim men — the Hindu right-wing conspiracy of “Love Jihad”.
One such post uploaded on Facebook can be seen here.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the video was from 2016. The lady constable in the video was speaking about casteist abuse she received from a senior officer.
AFWA Probe
In the video, the lady constable was standing beside a male constable and a child. A reverse search of its stills led us to the original video shared by Punjab Kesari TV on its YouTube channel in December 2016.
“Lady Constable exposes shameless inspector for misbehaving with her in Police station” read the headline of the video.
In the original video, there is no mention of “Love Jihad”. The woman constable and her husband complained about Suresh Chandra Yadav, the Station Head Officer (SHO) at the Karhal police station in the Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh.
The woman, Rupesh Bharti, claimed that Yadav asked her to cook food for his children in his house. When she refused, Yadav allegedly filed a report against her and suspended her. She said that after she approached a senior officer, her suspension was overturned.
However, she said that Yadav continued to humiliate her. She alleged that he blew cigarette smoke at her and then forced cashew nuts into her mouth. He then allegedly made casteist remarks at her because she was Jatav, a Scheduled Caste. She additionally accused Yadav of threatening to transfer her husband.
The incident was also reported by other media outlets including The Times of India and The Lallantop.
As per the TOI report, ahead of speaking to the media, the lady constable had also submitted a written complaint to the additional SP. Yadav, however, denied the allegation made against him to the Times of India.
When the video went viral on Twitter in 2016, the official handle of UP Police and IG Range Agra Police responded by saying an immediate inquiry would be conducted and necessary action would be taken following that.
— IG Range Agra (@igrangeagra) December 17, 2016
Thus, we concluded that the lady constable in the video was speaking about casteist harassment she suffered at the hands of a senior officer in UP, and not about the Hindu right-wing conspiracy of “Love Jihad”.
(With inputs from Yash Mittal )
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