Did Cops Threaten to Punch Ramachandra Guha During CAA Protests?

A frame to frame analysis showed that the policeman was only trying to adjust the flap of his shirt pocket.

Social media users falsely claimed that a policeman tried to threaten Ramachandra Guha with a fist.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Noted historian and political commentator Ramachandra Guha was detained by police during a protest against the amended Citizenship Act in Bengaluru on Thursday, 19 December.

CLAIM

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted an image of Guha being detained by policemen and questioned whether the cop was “threatening to hit Guha with his fist?” He further said that arresting a senior historian with the “threat of force is disgraceful.”

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/ Screengrab)

The archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.

Several social media users shared images of Guha being detained with a similar claim on Twitter and Facebook.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/ Screengrab)

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/ Screengrab)

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/ Screengrab)

WHAT’S THE TRUTH?

The claim mentioned in Tharoor’s tweet is misleading. We did a frame to frame analysis of the video to find out what had exactly happened.

In the video, at 0:10 seconds, the policeman’s wrist is bent inwards. For one to even threaten to punch, it’s the fist that would point at the person’s face and not the wrist.

Then, in the second frame, it can be clearly seen that his hand was positioned in a manner to adjust the flap of his shirt pocket (highlighted in red). In the third frame, the policeman put his hand down.

The portion highlighted in red shows that the policeman was adjusting the flap of his shirt pocket.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, on analysing the movement of policeman’s hand, frame by frame, we found that the Congress leader and many others falsely claimed that the policeman had threatened Ramchandra Guha with a fist.

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