Fact Check: Punjab Chief Minister Was Not Assaulted By Crowd In Punjab

A video depicting a large crowd chasing and attacking a man in a yellow turban is circulating widely on social media. The claim accompanying the video suggests that the man being assaulted is Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) with a Hindi caption that translates to "Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann was thrashed in Punjab." 

However, the video in question is not related to Punjab or Mr Mann.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led fact checker Logicall Facts to a longer version posted on Facebook by JK Rozana News on April 13, 2024. The Hindi description translates to "Breaking Jammu-Uproar in Yuva Jat Sabha rally, Amandeep Singh Boparai attacked." Amandeep Singh Boparai is a social activist and president of the Yuva Jatt Sabha, an organization dedicated to the welfare and upliftment of the Jatt community in Jammu and Kashmir.

Following this lead, they searched for news reports about an attack on Boparai. They found another video shared on Facebook by a local news network in Jammu and Kashmir, JK Channel, on April 13, 2024. This eight-minute video, shot from a different angle, shows scenes similar to those in the viral clip. At 7:50 minutes into the video, we can see identical features - the white car, the blue bus, and the river passage alongside the road - as seen in the viral clip. The video description reads, "Amandeep Boparai was detained by the police, what happened in Gol Gujral."

We also discovered that Boparai addressed the attack on him during a live video on Facebook, alleging that the attack was pre-planned to create discord between Hindus and Sikhs during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. On May 17, Boparai shared a post on Facebook stating that the video of an attack on him in Jammu was being falsely associated with Mann. We have contacted him for clarification and will update this article with his response when we receive it.

The man in the yellow turban seen in the viral clip can also be seen in the video shared by JK Channel and on Boparai's Facebook Live.

In an interview with Hindi news network Punjab Kesari, Boparai stated that a mob attacked a rally organized by the Yuva Jatt Sabha in Gol Gujral, Jammu. He revealed that he had been receiving threatening messages from Pakistani mobile numbers for several months, which had raised concerns about such an attack. Boparai reported that approximately 20 individuals assaulted him and his workers.

In Punjab, polling for 13 parliamentary constituencies will take place in a single phase during the seventh and final phase of voting, scheduled for June 1, 2024.

The verdict

The viral video depicts a mob assaulting Amandeep Singh Boparai, President of the Yuva Jatt Sabha, in Gol Gujral, Jammu, during a rally in April 2024. It has no connection to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.

(This story was originally published by Logically Facts, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)