By Srijit Das
An old video from Kolkata is circulating on social media with a misleading claim that it shows recent visuals of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers attacking police personnel during a political protest.
BOOM found that the incident took place on Kolkata's Mahatma Gandhi Road on September 13, 2022 during the Nabanna Abhijan (march to secretariat). BJP supporters from across the state arrived in Kolkata and marched towards the secretariat or Nabanna on September 13 to protest against alleged corruption of the Trinamul Congress led state government. Soon after reports of clashes between the BJP workers and Kolkata Police started coming in. Several top leaders from the party including Suvendu Adhikari, Locket Chatterjee and Rahul Sinha were later detained during the protest.
The video shows an angry mob carrying BJP flags and thrashing police personnel with them. A cop in white uniform defends himself with a fibre-glass shield as the protestors attack him. Another police officer can be seen fleeing from the spot before he is caught and thrashed with sticks and batons.
The clip is circulating with a Marathi caption that translates to, "These are not Kashmiri extremists who are beating the police but are BJP Hindu activists. Is this it, BJP's Hindutva. Is this not the beginning of dictatorship."
(Original Text in Marathi: *हे पोलिसांना झोडपून काढणारे कुणी काश्मिरी अतिरेकी नाहीत बर हे आहेत भाजपचे हिंदू कार्यकर्ते* *हेच आहे का, भाजपाचं हिंदुत्व*.. *हि हिटलरशाहीची सुरूवात तर नव्हे..*)
Click here to view the tweet.
BOOM also received the same video on its WhatsApp tipline number (7700906588) with a verification request.
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Fact Check
BOOM observed the video closely and noticed signboards with Bangla text present in the protest site. We also found that one of the cops is wearing a white uniform, similar to the uniform worn by Kolkata Police.
Taking a cue, we ran a keyword search using Bangla keywords such as "BJP Kolkata Police Beating" and found several news reports from September, 2022, about the incident.
We found a report published by Anandabazar Patrika Online on September 13, 2022, carrying multiple screengrabs from the same video.
The report states that the incident took place on September 13, 2022, near Kolkata's Mahatma Gandhi Road when a group of BJP workers attacked an Assistant Commissioner-ranked Kolkata police officer Debjit Chattopadhyay during their protest, Nabanna Ahijaan. The entire act was recorded on a CCTV camera present in the area. It also further added that a case was filed at the Burrabazar police station as the police officer was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition.
ABP Ananda on September 17, 2022, reported that Kolkata police scanned the CCTV footage, arrested nine people and filed an attempt to murder case against them.
The Hindu report from September 14, 2022, states, "Large parts of Howrah and central Kolkata turned into a battle zone on September 13 as clashes erupted between the police and supporters of the BJP after the latter tried to march to the State Secretariat ‘Nabanna’ building. Thousands of BJP supporters had descended on the streets of Kolkata and Howrah and were trying to reach the State Secretariat from different sides."
The same assault video was aired by several Bengali news outlets at that time. One such News18 Bangla bulletin from September 13, 2022, can be seen below.
An NDTV report states, that the officer who ran to his rescue fractured his hand.
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