Fact Check: Old Video Of Attack On Trinamool Leader Falsely Shared As Recent

An old video of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sujata Mondal being chased with sticks by a group of people in a field is being shared with the misleading claim that it is a recent incident of people chasing her away in Arambagh, West Bengal.

BOOM found that the viral video is from April 2021 when Mondal was chased out of a polling booth in the third phase of the assembly election in the state. Mondal had then alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was creating chaos and threatening TMC supporters in Arambagh amid the voting, which the BJP had denied.

In 2021, the TMC had made Mondal its candidate from the Arambagh Assembly seat in Hooghly district, but she lost. In 2022, she divorced her then-husband MP Saumitra Khan, who's now the BJP candidate for the Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency. Mondal legally separated with Saumitra and removed ‘Khan' from her surname and contested and won the state panchayat election as Sujata Mondal on a TMC ticket to become a Bankura Zilla Parishad member in 2022. TMC has given Mondal the Bishnupur Lok Sabha ticket for the 2024 general elections against her former husband Khan who has been fielded by the BJP again.

The 1.49 minutes video was posted on X by the handle Rakesh Krishnan Simha (@ByRakeshSimha) with the caption, "Sujata Khan, TMC candidate from Bishnupur, Bengal, was threatening voters of Arambagh to vote for TMC or face the consequences. Voters of Arambagh beat up Khan and other party workers and chased them away. The Hindus of Bengal are fighting back."

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

The same video is being shared by several X handles with the same misleading claim.

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the viral video of TMC leader Sujata Mondal being chased with lathis by a group of people is from April 2021 and not recent as being claimed on social media posts.

Taking a hint from the posts, we ran a keyword search with "TMC leader Sujata khan attacked", and found several news reports from April 2021 on the incident.

NDTV reported on April 6, 2021, that then TMC candidate Sujata Mondal from Arambagh was chased with lathis by a group of people in the middle of a field when voting was on in the third phase of the assembly election in the state. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged that BJP workers chased Mondal and hit her on head near a polling booth which the BJP had denied.

We can see the same visuals in the below report as in the viral video.

Click here to view.

We also found the same video which has the Anandabazar Patrika logo was posted on YouTube by the channel on April 6, 2021, with the caption, "Sujata Mandal Khan attacked by goons with bamboo stick".

This story was originally published by BOOM, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.