A disturbing video of two traffic cops being thrashed by a group of men in Delhi has resurfaced on social media with a misleading communal narrative.
The video shows men wearing skull caps kicking and slapping two cops, while shouting expletives. BOOM found that the incident happened in Delhi's Gokulpuri area in 2015, when cops were beaten up by a group for fining a vehicle after they flouted traffic rules.
The video has resurfaced as a recent one and Muslims have been accused of taking law and order in their own hands, in the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests across the country.
It has been captioned as, "Muslims beat up cops who issued a challan to them. This is an open challenge to the law and order of the country. This video tells what is going to happen in the country in the coming days; and who will run the country and what will the future be. The bitter truth is that the country is vulnerable from goons within it. For humanity's sake, please send it to all the groups. This should be in the news headline by tomorrow evening."
(Original text in Hindi: ''पुलिस द्वारा चालान काटने पर मुसलमानो ने उनकी पिटाई की। जो कानून को चुनौती है। यह विडियो बताता है कि आगे हिन्दुस्तान मे क्या क्या होगा। कौन देश चलायेगा। और सबका भविष्य क्या होगा । कडवा सच यह है कि देश को बाहर से ज्यादा अन्दर से बहुत ज्यादा खतरा है। दोस्तों ईनसानीयत के नाते आपसे हाथ जोड़कर विनती है की यह विड़ीयो हर एक ग्रुप में भेजना है। कल शाम तक हर एक न्यूज़ चैनल में आना चाहिए।'')
BOOM also received the same video in its Whatsapp helpline number (+917700906588) for verification.
The video is viral on Facebook with the same narrative. The footage is disturbing in nature and contains expletives, discretion advised.
Viral on Facebook
In fact, the same footage was viral in 2018, with the same text.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on a few of its frames and found that the video is five years old. The incident happened in Delhi's Gokulpuri area in 2015, when cops stopped a bike for issuing a challan for breaking traffic rules. Later, a scuffle broke out between the cops and a crowd which had gathered by then.
According to reports, traffic cops fined three youths and issued a challan to them for riding triple seat on a bike. A brief scuffle broke out between them when the riders refused to pay the fine. The trio later thrashed the two cops, along with a mob. Two riders were arrested, the third was a minor. The same video was uploaded to YouTube by Punjab Kesari and NDTV India on July 13, 2015.