These images show police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh beating an alleged thief

This article is more than one year old.
Published on November 10, 2020 at 06:30
3 min read

An image has been shared thousands of times in multiple posts in November 2020 on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim it shows an Indian television journalist being assaulted by police in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The claim is false; the image was published in media reports about police beating an alleged thief in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in January 2020.

The image was published on Facebook here on November 4, 2020. The post has been shared more than 1,100 times.

Screenshot of misleading Facebook post

The post’s Hindi-language caption translates to English as: “My mind is filled with agony and anger after seeing this scene. The crusaders of Hindutva will be beaten like this? See with your open eyes, two policemen are holding his legs, one has put his foot on his chest, and another is beating with a belt. This is the punishment Arnabji is meeting with for standing with the truth.”

Arnabji refers to Arnab Goswami, a popular Indian TV anchor and the editor-in-chief of Republic TV news channel.

The post circulated on the same day that Goswami was arrested by police in the Indian state of Maharashtra in connection with a suicide case, as AFP reported here on November 4, 2020.

The image was also shared alongside identical claims on Facebook here, here, here and here, and on Twitter here, here, here and here.

The claim, however, is false.

A reverse image search on Google using the first screenshot in the composite image found it was published in a Hindi news report here on January 10, 2020.

Screenshot of media report

The article’s Hindi-language headline translates to English as: “Police hooliganism in Yogi’s rule, three officials suspended after the video of police brutalities on an alleged thief went viral”.

Yogi refers to Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. According to the report, the incident happened in the state’s Deoria district.

Further keyword searches on Google found the photo was also published on Twitter here by Asian News International on January 10, 2020. Quoting a police official, ANI also reported that three officers were suspended after the video emerged.

Deoria: In a video, three police personnel can be seen thrashing a man, accused of stealing a mobile phone, at a police station. SP Shripati Mishra says, "The three cops have been suspended. FIR is being registered against them. The man has been sent for medical exam." (09.01) pic.twitter.com/SDDhNGMcip
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 9, 2020

Footage of the police abuse was also published on YouTube here by The Quint, an Indian news website, on the same day.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the images shared in the misleading Facebook post (top) and The Quint’s video report (bottom):

Image comparing screenshots

NDTV, a prominent TV news network, also published screenshots from the same video here on January 10, 2020.

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