PTI Fact Check: A 13-second video clip is going viral on social media during the Lok Sabha elections. It is being shared with the claim that BJP workers beat up people from the Dalit community in Manikpur Mirgarhwa, Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh for not voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
PTI Fact Check Desk investigated the viral claim, which turned out to be fake. Actually, in a village located in Manikpur police station area of Pratapgarh district, the electricity wire broke due to a tree branch falling on the electric pole, due to which there was a dispute between two parties. Some users on social media are now sharing the CCTV footage of this incident with a fake claim.
Facebook user Radheshyam Daroga shared a 13-second clip and claimed that BJP workers brutally beat up people from the Dalit community for not voting for the party.
While sharing the video on May 20, the user wrote, “In Kaushambi’s Manikpur Mirgarhwa, BJP workers, enraged at not voting for BJP, brutally beat up people from the Dalit community. This is how the BJP workers are behaving with the descendants of Baba Saheb. If the BJP comes to power once again, it will abolish the Constitution and snatch away the right to vote from the people of the Dalit community! Remove BJP, save the Constitution.”
Fact Check
While investigating the video, PTI’s fact check team first reverse searched the key frames of the video through Google Lens. During this, this video was also found on the social media accounts of ‘Uttar Pradesh Congress’ and ‘Bharat Samachar’. It was told that the Samajwadi Party candidate complained about the matter to the Election Commission.
During the investigation, we found the response of Pratapgarh Police on the ‘X’ post of news channel ‘Bharat Samachar’, in which they called the viral video fake and issued a clarification in this regard.
According to the police, the matter is related to Ramma Ka Purwa village under Manikpur police station area of Pratapgarh district. It was told that on the evening of May 18, the contractor cut down a tree bought from the first party, a branch of which fell on the electric pole in front of the house of the second party resident of Ramma Ka Purwa village, whose electric wire broke and fell on the ground. When the second party asked to get the electric wire repaired, a dispute broke out between the two parties. This has nothing to do with the elections.
In this regard, Additional Superintendent of Police (West) of Pratapgarh Police Sanjay Rai also shared a byte on social media. He said, “On May 18, a deal was struck between contractor Arvind Patel and Ram Naresh to cut three trees at Thana Manikpur, in which two trees were cut and a fig tree fell on the wire of the pole nearby, the wire broke and the pole got damaged. The pole was near Uday Prakash Shukla’s house. Contractor Arvind called Ramdhin Sonkar (operator of the wood cutting machine) and it was decided that the wire and pole would be repaired by calling the lineman and giving him Rs 10,000. After mutual agreement, both the parties left. Today, on May 20, Uday Prakash Shukla had gone to narrate a story near Ramdhin Sonkar’s house. There was an altercation and fight between them again regarding the same matter. Both the parties were brought to the police station and action is being taken. No one has been stopped from voting. The claim of stopping from voting is wrong.”
Taking the investigation forward, the fact check team tried to find media reports related to this with the help of relevant keywords. During this, a news was found on the website of ‘Live Hindustan’, in which it was told that in Manikpur Panchayat, a fight broke out between two parties over breaking of an electricity pole while cutting a fig tree. In the report, citing the police, it has been said that there is no election angle in this. It is being spread in a fake manner.
PTI’s investigation makes it clear that the video going viral on social media has nothing to do with the elections. This video is related to a dispute between two parties over a power line breaking due to a tree branch falling on an electric pole.
(This story was originally published by PTI, Fact Check Desk, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline/excerpt/opening introduction para this story has not been edited by News18india.com staff)
Tags: Fact Check, Fake news, Latest viral video, Lok Sabha Elections
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 28, 2024, 19:30 IST