Fact-check | Old images of BJP UP leader beaten by party’s female workers shared with misleading claim

Photos of a man wearing a saffron kurta are viral on social media. In the first image, a group of women is seen beating the individual while the second shows his torn kurta. Users claim that the incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha, where women thrashed a local BJP MLA with shoes and slippers. These images were posted on the Facebook group ‘I Support Kanhaiya Kumar’.

Twitter user Mobin Pathan also shared the photographs with the same claim. He identifies as a member of the Indian Youth Congress on Twitter.

The photographs are being circulated widely on Twitter and Facebook.

Fact-check

A keyword search led us to a News18 India video story dated June 6, 2018, reporting that BJP leader Madan Verma was thrashed by the party’s female workers in the collectorate premises of Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. Verma had gone to the collectorate to pacify women workers who had come to file a complaint about the theft of ration. However, the angry women thrashed the leader, accusing him of extortion. They alleged that he extorted money from ration shop owners by threatening them using another minister’s name.

On June 5, 2018, ‘The Voice Hindi News’ also carried a story quoting the women as saying, “Despite having three ration shops in the village, the villagers are neither getting food grains nor kerosene. And the local ration dealers are openly black marketing these goods.”

It is noteworthy that Madan Kumar Verma is not listed as a BJP MLA on My Neta. Verma’s Twitter profile reads, “Chairman Palola Cooperative Society, Amroha”.

Mehboob Ali of the Samajwadi Party is the MLA representing Amroha in Uttar Pradesh.

Therefore, photos from 2018 that show BJP leader Madan Verma being thrashed by the party’s female workers at the collectorate office in Amroha are being falsely shared with the claim that a BJP MLA was recently beaten by women.

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