This Video of BJP Leader Getting Thrashed in Tamil Nadu Is Old and Lacks Context

A video showing several people beating a man is going viral to claim that it shows a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader named Rajesh Biju recently being thrashed outside his house in Tamil Nadu.

What are users saying?: Those sharing the video have captioned it, "Tamil Nadu: BJP IT & Social Media Cell District Secretary* Rajesh Biju was brutally thrashed last evening in front of his house.

Rajesh is undergoing treatment in Sri Chakra Hospital, Nanganallur, Chennai East."

An archive of the post can be accessed here.

The video is being widely shared on social media platforms like Facebook and X. You can view archives of several such posts here, here, and here.

Are these claims true?: No, the viral video is old and lacks proper context about the incident. It dates back to July 2023, when a fight between two factions of the BJP took place in Nanganallur, Tamil Nadu.

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Hints in the viral video:

A closer look at the viral video showed a timestamp on the top-right corner that indicated towards the clip being from 2023.

The datestamp showed that the video was from 31 July 2023.

News reports: We translated these words into Tamil "bjp secretary attacked chennai rajesh biju" and performed a keyword search on Google, which led us to a news report published by ETV Bharat.

• The report mentioned that BJP general secretary of Chennai East District S Subbiah allegedly assaulted the district's IT division secretary Rajesh.

Subbiah had suspected that a video of him drinking alcohol that went viral on social media was shared by Rajesh.

Rajesh had lodged a complaint at Palavanthangal police station about the incident.

The report was published on 1 August 2023.

Other sources: We found the same visuals shared on the official YouTube channel of 'Malaimurasu Tv 24X7'. The bulletin was published on 1 August 2023 with a title that said, "BJP executive who attacked his own party member absconding BJP | Chennai."

What did the police say?: Team WebQoof came across a post shared by the official X handle of Greater Chennai Police, where it was mentioned that the incident was from 31 July 2023.

• It said that the video showed a fight between two factions of a political party which happened due to a personal dispute.

Conclusion: It is clear that the video is old and is being shared with a misleading context.

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