Claim
A photo of an old newspaper clipping featuring a photo of a man assaulting a traffic police by grabbing his jaw has been revived with a false and communal claim that the accused is a Muslim. The Hindi caption in the photo reads as, "Incident from Jodhpur. The audacity of the so-called peace messengers". (Original text: जोधपुर की घटना तथाकथित शांति दूतों का दुस्साहस)
Fact
BOOM found that the viral picture is old and the claim with it is false. The photo is from May 2016 when a hawker assaulted a traffic constable near Clock Tower, Jodhpur in Rajasthan. According to a news report by the website Lionexpress that used a similar image of the incident, the assault happened after a traffic police inspector had asked a hawker, who had illegally assembled with his cart near Clock Tower in Jodhpur, to move. Bhaskar had also reported on the incident and identified the traffic police officer in the photo as Head Constable Shobharam. BOOM then reached out to Shobharam who is currently an Assistant Sub-inspector in Jodhpur Police and confirmed that the hawker who threatened him is a Hindu. BOOM debunked the photo in April 2022 when it went viral with the same communal claim.
