FACT CHECK: Video from Bihar showing cop slapping e-rickshaw driver shared as one from UP

CLAIM

Many social media users are sharing a video that shows a policeman in uniform thrashing an e-rickshaw driver. A Facebook page that goes by the name 'VAN News' shared the video

with a caption in Hindi that loosely translates to, "Police keep thrashing the poor. His fault was that he asked the cop to pay for the ride."

They even mentioned the name of the reporter who reported the news for them.

A Twitter user who goes by the handle '@bV0emyyRtgH4Hd' shared a YouTube link to the same video saying, in Hindi, what loosely translates to, "Please take cognizance of the matter and initiate legal action," and tagged Uttar Pradesh DGP and the verified Twitter handle of UP Police. This implied that the incident was shot in UP.

The YouTube was published on November 19, 2019.

A Times Fact Check reader also sent us the YouTube video shared by the above Twitter user saying the incident is from UP.

TRUTH
The video is of an incident from Bihar 's Nawada district and one that happened last year.

We checked the verified Twitter handle of UP Police's Fact Check team to see if they have issued some clarification on the video and found a tweet in which they responded saying what closely translates to, "The incident seen in the video is from 2018 and if of Bihar's Nawada," and attached a report published about the incident on News18 Hindi.

The report carried the exact same video and said that the incident is from Kalali Road in Nawada city. The policeman abused and beat up the e-rickshaw driver for entering a one-way road, and not because he asked the cop to pay for the ride he took. The report also said that the e-rickshaw driver stopped as soon as he realised it was a one-way road and tried to turn his vehicle. By mistake, a wheel of the e-rickshaw hit the policeman and the latter was enraged. The policeman then ruthlessly thrashed the driver and abused him.

The report said that SP Hari Prasad suspended the policeman, identified as Vishwajit, after the video went viral on social media then.

VERDICT
A video showing a policeman thrashing an e-rickshaw driver is being shared with a claim that the incident is recent and from Uttar Pradesh.

The video is actually from Bihar's Nawada and is of an incident from 2018. The claim is, hence, false.