Old Video of Police Beating TMC Workers Falsely Linked to Recent West Bengal Elections

A video showing police personnel slapping two individuals carrying Trinamool Congress flags is going viral on social media. In the clip, the two men can be seen sitting by the roadside with party flags, while police officers beat and disperse them. Sharing the video, users have accused the Election Commission of India of bias, claiming that in West Bengal, two TMC workers were preparing voter slips at a polling station when security personnel arrived and began beating them.

Jitendra Verma shared the video and wrote, “The Election Commission of India is ensuring fair elections in West Bengal. At polling stations, police are beating TMC workers with sticks and slapping them to conduct ‘free and fair’ voting.”

Harmanpreet Kaur wrote, “Gyanesh Kumar Gupta has deployed 2,407 companies of Central forces for the first phase of Bengal polls… Is it for this? And under whose direction?”

Abhimanyu Singh wrote, “Two ‘peaceful’ Trinamool Congress workers were sitting near a polling centre, preparing voter slips. A police officer arrived and slapped them hard; when his hand hurt, he started beating them with a stick. Both workers ran away to save themselves.”

Similarly, Lutyens Media, Ajay Jha and Ajit Singh Deol also shared the video.

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Fact Check

During the investigation, we performed a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video. This led us to the same video uploaded on 8 July 2023 on the YouTube channel of News18 Bangla. According to the video, it is related to the 2023 Panchayat elections. The description states that there were allegations of bomb explosions in Basanti the previous night, and bombs were recovered from the roadside on the morning of polling day, creating panic in the area. Police were deployed to control the situation and were seen taking action against gatherings, including chasing people with batons and, in some instances, using force.

Claim	Police in West Bengal slapped and beat two Trinamool Congress workers at a polling station while they were preparing voter slips.
Claimed by	Jitendra Verma, Abhimanyu singh, Harmanpreet Kaur & Others
Fact	The viral video is not related to the recent West Bengal Assembly elections. It has been available online since 2023 and was shared in the context of the Panchayat elections.