No, police are not thrashing migrants from Bihar in this viral video
Claim: A video showing three men kneeling down and getting beaten up by the police went viral on social media with misleading claim that police are treating the migrant labourers from Bihar in this way during the lockdown period following the pandemic. The men in the video are seen in pain and pleading the police to stop.
Lately, a lot of misleading and false claims have been circulating on social media amidst the current plight of migrant workers who have been worst-hit due to the lockdown in India. They have lack of money, food and shelter and with shortage of transport facilities, many reports of police punishing migrants for violating lockdown have also come up.
However, these claims are misleading. This incident took place in Khammam district off Telangana and the men being thrashed were all locals and not migrants.
The video was shared a lot of Facebook with false claims.
The post is archived here.
The caption in Hindi said, “प्रवासी मजदूरों के साथ ये क्या हो रहा है..ये अंग्रेजो से भी बदतर हाल है मजदूरों के साथ क्रिमिनल के पास हाथ जोड़ते हो गरीब मजदूर का मज़बूरी का फायदा उठा रहे हो इसी को कहते हैं निर्लज्ज की सरकार।#नीतीशकुमार #नरेंद्रमोदी”
Translated to English “What is this happening with migrant workers..This is worse than the British, you add hands to the criminal with the workers, you are taking advantage of the helplessness of the poor worker. This is what the government of cheeky is. #NitishKumar #NarendraModi”
The same video was shared on Twitter as well.
The tweet can be seen here and has been archived here.
TRUTH
The video surfacing online is a video from March 2020 and was shot in Telangana. However, the video went viral in April 2020 which raised eyebrows due to the violence. The sub-inspector involved in the video beating three men was suspended. They were beaten up because they were allegedly caught playing cards outside their home during the lockdown.
A report about the same video by The News Minute states that “The incident took place on March 28 in Khammam district. Khammam Commissioner of Police Tasfeer Iqbal has attached Mudigonda SI Satish Kumar, who is accused of using excessive force, to district headquarters of the Armed Reserve. He also ordered Khammam Rural Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Venkat Reddy to conduct a thorough probe into the matter.”
The report also included the same viral video in the report.
It also mentioned that the three men were labourers working in the local granite industry. While the police were beating them up with sticks, their family members are also be seen witnessing and crying. The family members stated that the trio were just passing time by playing cards as there is no other work due to the lockdown but the police claimed that they were gambling and some money was seized from their possession.
Hence, the video is being passed with false claims of it being from Bihar where migrants are subjected to violence but the video is from Telangana which includes locals.
