Claim
Video showing an MLA from West Bengal, Mansoor Mohammad Dimir, thrashing an on-duty police officer.
The archived version of the post can be seen here, which has clocked 51.1K views so far. We received this video on our Whatsapp tipline (+91-9999499044), too, with users requesting us to fact-check it.
Fact
We looked up the official list of the members of West Bengal’s legislative assembly, where we did not find any MLA by the name of Mansoor Mohammad Dimir. Also, we did not find any credible news reports about such an incident in West Bengal, further raising our doubts.
We then ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to a Deccan Chronicle report, dated October 20, 2018, sharing a screengrab of the viral video and headlined, “Watch: BJP councillor thrashes UP cop, attacks female colleague in restaurant.”
“A sub-inspector, accompanying a female lawyer friend to a restaurant, was thrashed by its owner Munish Kumar, who is also a BJP councillor from Meerut’s ward no. 40 has, following altercation over delay in serving food. The incident that took place on Friday was captured on camera and later went viral on social media,” read the report.
A relevant keyword search led us to multiple news reports about the incident, seen here, here, here and here, sharing the viral video.
“A shocking video has emerged from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councilor thrashed a police officer in uniform. The incident took place on Friday evening in the Kankarkheda area of Meerut district. In the video, BJP leader, Manish Kumar, is seen slapping a sub-inspector multiple times and hurling abuses at him. The police officer had come to the BJP leader’s restaurant with a woman lawyer. The woman was reportedly involved in an altercation with a waiter for not serving her meal on time, read an India Today report, dated October 20, 2018, adding that the BJP leader was arrested, which further confirmed that the viral claim is false.
This video went viral last year with the false claim that it shows a DMK MLA thrashing an on-duty police officer in Tamil Nadu.
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Source
Deccan Chronicle report, October 20, 2018
India Today report, October 20, 2018
NDTV report, October 20, 2018
