Video Shows UP Police Beating SP's Kamal Akhtar? No, Look Carefully!

The second video could be traced back to 2011 and it shows Samajwadi Party's Raja Chaturvedi being thrashed.

Two videos from different time range and showing different individuals were combined together to falsely claim that UP police thrashed Samajwadi Party's Kamal Akhtar for his remark on government officials.

(Photo Courtesy: WhatsApp/Altered by The Quint)

A video which shows former cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Akhtar boasting about his influence in the state is being juxtaposed with another snippet of a police personnel beating a person.

The video is being shared to take a dig at Akhtar and show the "reality".

However, we found that the two videos are unrelated and have been stitched together to create a misleading narrative. The first video shows Akhtar addressing a gathering in Amroha in April, while the other video shows people beating Samajwadi Party's Raja Chaturvedi, not Akhtar.

The second video could be traced back to 2011.

CLAIM

In the first clip, Akhtar can be heard saying that even today (when the government has changed) no official has the courage to say 'no' to him for anything. This then cuts to another video, which shows a man wearing a similar white attire, being thrashed by a police personnel.

Several users on social media shared this clip asking people to watch the full video, in turn mocking Akhtar.

You can view the archived version here.

(Source:Twitter/ Screenshot)

Some archived links can be seen here and here.

The Quint received a query on the claim being made in the video on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND

As stated earlier, the viral video is a combination of two clips. And we found out that the two clips are unrelated to each other.

Let's take a look at them on by one.

VIDEO 1

A keyword search on YouTube led us to the bulletin, which is now being shared, uploaded by ABP Ganga on 9 April in which the viral visuals can be seen from 01:16 minutes.

The bulletin stated that the former cabinet minister and ex-MLA from Hasanpur constituency was addressing a gathering in Amroha when he claimed that no government official has the courage to refuse him for anything.

VIDEO 2

We searched on Google with keywords 'Video police lathi charge Samajwadi Party leader'. And since the claim mentioned that police was thrashing a SP leader, we selected the date range when the said party was not in power in Uttar Pradesh.

Therefore, we searched with the aforementioned keywords in the range 2017-2021 and 2007-2012. The latter custom search led us to a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011 that carried the viral visuals.

The viral visuals could be traced back to 2011 at least.

(Photo: YouTube/ Screenshot)

The caption of the YouTube video suggested that the man seen in the video is SP's Raja Chaturvedi and that the visuals are from 21 February 2011 outside the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow.

However, we weren't able to find any credible news reports on why Chaturvedi was thrashed.

Since the YouTube video was a clearer and longer version of the viral one, we were able to compare the appearances of the man seen in the viral visuals, Kamal Akhtar and Raja Chaturvedi. The comparison showed that the man in question is Chaturvedi and not Akhtar.

Left: Viral video. Middle: Raja Chaturvedi. Right: Kamal Akhtar.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, two unrelated videos, showing different individuals were combined together to falsely claim that UP police thrashed Samajwadi Party's Kamal Akhtar.

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