2019 Clip Of Maharashtra Cop Viral As Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut Dancing

An old video clip showing a Maharashtra cop dancing in civilian clothes along with other people has been revived and shared on social media with false captions identifying the man as Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

BOOM found that the person shown in the viral clip is head constable Lakshman Bhadarge, currently serving at Parbhani Police Station in Maharashtra. Bhadarge confirmed to BOOM that it was him in the now-viral clip.

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The clip has been revived in the backdrop of the recent controversy that Raut had landed himself in after using a derogatory word for Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut when she had likened Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

The Bollywood actor is at loggerheads with the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and many of his party members after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Raut had later said that his words were interpreted wrongly and what he meant was that Kangana was beimaan (dishonest). He can be heard referring to Ranaut as a 'naughty girl' in an Aaj Tak interview.

The viral clip shows a man dancing on the beats of drums. However, different versions of the video have been overlaid with different Hindi film songs.

A Facebook post shares the video with a Hindi caption which translates to 'Look at the extremes of shamelessness and cheating. This 'naughty' man who used to dance in rallies in 2007 today calls himself the flag bearer of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's legacy'.

(Hindi: बेशर्मी और बेईमानी की इन्तिहा तो देखिये जरा...ये naughty आदमी जो 2007 में जुलूसों में इस तरह नाचता था. आज खुद को छत्रपति शिवा जी महाराज की विरासत का ठेकेदार बताता है..)

Access the archived versions of the posts here and here.

The clip has been shared from multiple Facebook pages with similar fake claims.

The video is viral on Twitter with sarcastic captions.

A Twitter user shared the video with a caption 'Sanjay Raut is all set to welcome Kangana Ranaut on Mumbai Airport. #Shame_On_MahaGovt'.

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Fact Check

BOOM did a keyword search with 'Sanjay Raut dance viral video' on YouTube and found that a Marathi News channel Saam Marathi TV News had debunked the claim in December last year.

The video mentions that the man seen dancing in the viral clip is Lakshman Bhadarge, a cop posted in Parbhani district of Maharashtra. The clip also shows snippets of the cop introducing himself in Marathi.

BOOM then reached out to Bhadarge who is currently posted at the Parbhani police station.

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Refuting the claims made in the video, Bhadarge said, "The video was recorded on November 20, 2019 when I was attending the wedding of my friend's son at Shirur in Parbhani. Since then it has been viral and people have started claiming that I look like Sanjay Raut... they started taking selfies and I became quite famous."

"There have been several news reports about the video and me," Bhadarge told BOOM.

We found several Marathi news reports on Bhadarge and the keen resemblance he bears to the Shiv Sena leader. Read here and here.