UP's BJP Councillor Thrashing a Cop Misidentified as DMK Leader From Tamil Nadu

This video dates back to 2018 and shows a BJP municipal councillor from Meerut, UP beating up a policeman.

Fact-check: The claim about the video showing DMK leader thrashing a police officer in Tamil Nadu is false, it shows a BJP councilor.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video is going viral on social media to claim that it shows Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MLA Mansur Mohammad beating up an uniformed police personnel in Tamil Nadu.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: We found out that this video dates back to 2018 and shows a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) municipal councillor from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh beating up a policeman.

• It is unrelated to DMK and Tamil Nadu.

How did we find out the truth?: We did not find any news report about a DMK leader assaulting police.

• Next, we performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and came across several old news reports about this incident.

• A report shared by NDTV on 20 October 2018 shared the same video and stated that it showed Manish Kumar beating a sub-inspector in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

• It adds that Kumar is a BJP councillor and the owner of the restaurant where the police personnel had visited. The argument started when the police officer started complaining about the service at the restaurant.

• According to a post shared by news agency Asian News International (ANI) on X (formerly Twitter), this incident happened on 19 October 2018.

This video is from 2018.

(Source: NDTV/Screenshot)

• We found similar information in other reports by Hindustan Times, India Today and DNA.

• These reports also mention that the BJP leader was later arrested under sections 395 (punishment for dacoity) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code.

• They carried a statement by the Superintendent of Police, Meerut, Ranvijay Singh who said, "The sub-inspector has been attached to the police lines because he skipped duty to go out for dinner. We are investigating the matter and more evidences are being collected."

Clarification from the police: We checked Meerut police's X handle and found a clarification under the same video stating that this showed a person named Manish beating up SI Sukhpal Singh.

This post is from 20 October 2018.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Conclusion: Clearly, the claim about the video showing DMK leader thrashing a police officer in Tamil Nadu is false.

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