Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
Author, journalist and social commentator Shobha De claimed that senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan was attacked in his chamber.
Shobha De shared a clip on her Twitter profile that depicts an attack on lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan. The video shared by Shobha is a clip allegedly aired by Times Now and shows a man in his early 30s manhandling Bhushan badly. Disrespectful slurs and repeated mention of Kashmir can also be heard clearly in the video. De, while condemning the deplorable act, expressed her anger and disgust. The video in context has been shared widely and has garnered over four thousand likes and over one thousand retweets and retweet with quotes.
The archived version of Shobha’s tweet can be seen here.
We fragmented the viral video in keyframes and performed a reverse image search on Google. But we didn’t get any authentic information to corroborate.
We watched the viral clip again and we noticed that at 4 seconds, the ticker reads, “Prashant Bhushan Beaten Up”.
Using these details, we performed a Google search and we found that the viral video is not new and exists on the Internet since 2011.
After observing the results of the aforementioned search, we learned that the same video was published by the Times of India on October 12, 2011.
The description of the above-mentioned video reads, ” Prashant Bhushan beaten up for Kashmir comments”. We also found a report published by the Times of India that throws more light on the viral video.
As per the TOI article, Prashant Bhushan was attacked on October 12 for his alleged remarks on the Kashmir issue. Prashant was speaking to Times Now news channel when the two attackers barged into his chamber and slapped, dragged and manhandled him. The attackers were identified as the members of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena. Following the attack on Bhushan, the Delhi Police registered an FIR and subsequently, one attacker was arrested.
Therefore, we conclude that the video shared by Shobha De that depicts an attack on lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan is 9-year-old and has nothing to do with the ongoing developments.
Result: Misleading
Sources:
Times Of India: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/Prashant-Bhushan-beaten-up-for-Kashmir-comments/videoshow/10327144.cms
Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
