This video shows an Indian police officer beating a man who allegedly broke coronavirus lockdown restrictions

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 19, 2020 at 10:00
3 min read
By AFP India

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook alongside a claim it shows an Indian police officer beating a man with a stick after he waved a flag representing an anti-government party on Independence Day. The claim, however, is misleading; the video has circulated online since at least March 2020 in reports about an Indian police officer beating a man who allegedly violated lockdown restrictions.

The video was published here on Facebook on August 16, 2020.

A screenshot, taken on August 17,2020, of the misleading post.

The post’s Hindi-language caption translates to English as: “The protectors of the constitution hoisted a blue flag instead of the tricolour today on the occasion of the Independence Day. Police arrived and attracted waving their sticks.”

The blue flag represents the Dalit resistance, an anti-government party who says it is striving for equality in India, as reported here in AFP.

“Tricolour” is a reference to India’s national flag.

The video was also shared here, here, here, here and here on Facebook alongside a similar claim.

The claim, however, is misleading.

A reverse image search on Google found a similar video published here on YouTube on March 25, 2020.

The video is titled “The Result of Violating Lockdown”. The footage in the misleading post corresponds to the YouTube video from the beginning to the 20-second mark.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading post (L) and the YouTube video (R):

A screenshot comparison of the misleading post and the YouTube video.

A screenshot of the YouTube video was also published here on Rajasthan Patrik, a local Hindi daily newspaper on March 25, 2020.

A screenshot, taken on August 18, 2020, of the local newspaper report.

India announced it had implemented a lockdown on March 25, 2020, as AFP reported here. Police officers were seen swinging "lathi" batons, a long hardened bamboo cane, to control some crowds on the street, as AFP reported here.

A frame-by-frame analysis of the video shows the badge on the police officer’s uniform at the 11-second mark and the logo on the police car at the 20-second mark. It suggests the incident happened in Maharashtra, the western peninsular region of India.

The same police officer uniform can be seen in the photos published here on Twitter by the Beed District Police on August 16, 2020.

The logo seen on the police car, circled in red by AFP below, corresponds with the logo of the Maharashtra Police.

A screenshot comparison of the logo on the police car, circled in red by AFP, and the logo of the Maharashtra Police.

The Hindi-language caption on the logo translates in English as: “Maharashtra Police”.

The misleading post was also debunked by an Indian fact-checker BOOM here on August 16, 2020.

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