West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in an interview with Bengali news channel ABP Ananda on April 15 repeated a debunked claim that Bharatiya Janata Party member Locket Chatterjee's car window was broken from inside.
This claim, which was earlier debunked by BOOM, is based on a video clip which went viral during Chatterjee's visit to Bengal's Hooghly on April 10, to falsely state that someone from inside the car shattered the window.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, during an interaction with Suman De, senior vice president, ABP, alleged that the BJP exerted a strong influence over the media.
She said, "(BJP)They will not allow you to talk. Fifteen of my TMC people died. How are you balancing it. Why do you all indulge in 'balance politics'. You are balancing Sujata (Mondal Khan) with Papia (Adhikari)." As De countered Banerjee about the balancing allegation, she said, "Locket Chatterjee, you all showed and I also saw it on the media, she broke the glass window of her own car. She was sitting inside the car." Banerjee further alleged that BJP was trying to frame the TMC. "The BJP is trying to make things up. They are cooking up stories and preparing their cases and photoshopping the same. We do not do the same." The interaction can be seen from 22 minute 49 second mark.
Mamata Banerjee referred to a video which shows Locket Chatterjee's car being attacked by locals in Hooghly on April 10. The viral clip further shows security personnel jostling with the angry crowd keeping them away from the car; Chatterjee is sitting in as the window of the car can be seen shattering into pieces.
Locket Chatterjee is a BJP MP from Hooghly.
BOOM analysed clips from the incident and found that a stone was hurled at the car window which led to it shattering.
Several durations of the clip was shared by netizens speculating if Chatterjee broke the car window from inside. Twitter user Ravi Nair with the caption, "Who broke the window of BJP leader Locket Chatterjee's car from inside?"
Tweeting a portion of the same clip TMC's verified Twitter handle claimed that Chatterjee tried to break her car's glass window from inside to blame the TMC of creating a row.
In a tweet, Umashankar Singh, senior editor, political and foreign affairs at NDTV also stated that Chatterjee's glass was broken from inside.
BOOM found that a stone had hit the glass window of BJP MP Locket Chatterjee's car which led to the window glass breaking. On observing the clip which shows a different angle tweeted by Umashankar Singh, we spotted a stone on slowing down the video. At the 10 seconds timestamp, we can clearly spot that the stone coming in which hits the car from outside breaking the window.
BOOM slowed the clip and highlighted the part in red where the stone can be seen hitting the window.