ABVP Member Hitting Girls in Police Gear Mid Jamia Protests: Fact Check

Story:

ABVP Member Bharat Sharma Hitting Girls with Stick, Dressed in Police Gear During Jamia Anti-CAA Protests in Delhi.

Other Versions

1. The man in Red Tshirt who was seen hitting the girls with stick during Jamia protest is an ABVP Member Bharat Sharma, He should b prosecuted! & how cops took his help

2. His name is Bharat Sharma. Law student of Delhi University. State executive committee member of ABVP. Volunteer of RSS. Clearly seen kicking students for no reason and abusing them.

Fact Check:

Couple of stories viral in India allege to show Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) member Bharat Sharma Hitting Girls with Stick. They claim he was dressed in Police gear, wearing helmet and kicking and beating students for no reason during student protests against CAA in Delhi. The claims as such are mixture of hoax and facts, explained here.

On 15th December 2019, silent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent around the Jamia Millia Islamia University campus. Amidst involvement of political parties and local goons, it caused damage to public property and fight between police and students. Consequently, the two stories in question became popular on social media.

ABVP Member Hitting Girls in Police Gear?

A message went viral on Twitter alleging to show ABVP member Bharat Sharma in civil dress – red t-shirt and blue jeans – wearing helmet on his head and a chest guard on his body. It said he was hitting girls with stick during Jamia protests. It also said he should be prosecuted and questioned how cops took his help.

Related, Viral Image

Earlier, Journalist Barkha Dutt shared an image – mentioning a viral video – showing two young women save a male friend from police lathis by giving him cover. She called the two girls Ladeeda Farzana & Ayesha Renna as sheroes of Jamia and Shaheen whom they saved. The viral picture from the video appears to show Delhi police beating girls with sticks.

The fact of the matter is slightly different. As you can see in the full video below, the police were not beating girls. The policeman in red shirt appears to have been beaten by someone and is in pain. It is possible; the man the girls were covering was involved in reported stone pelting at the police. In the video, you can also hear, the girls tell police not to beat him saying – he will not do anything (voh kuch nahi karega..).

Coming to the claim in question, Bharat Sharma is in fact a law student of Delhi University and ABVP activist. However, the police person in civil dress wearing helmet and protective chest gear is not Bharat Sharma. A senior police officer from Delhi told ThePrint he is actually an Anti-Auto Theft Squad (AATS) Constable Arvind posted in the South District. DCP (Central) M.S. Randhawa also told ThePrint this is another lie spreading on social media to tarnish the image of Delhi Police. Further, another officer said members of specialized units of the police, including the AATS mostly operate in civil clothes. Official Twitter handle of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also tweeted about the false and defamatory allegations.

Bharat Sharma Kicking Student for No Reason?

There’s another short video spread wide on Twitter alleging to show Bharat Sharma kicking a student and abusing him for no reason. The video was in fact shared by Akshay Lakra, Delhi Unit President of the Congress’s National Students Union of India (NSUI) and law student of Delhi University.

The video is real and does in fact show Bharat Sharma kicking and abusing a student. However, in the small clip, it is unclear why he did it. There’s some commotion of protest in police presence inside the college campus of Delhi. In response to criticism against his act, Bharat Sharma shared the tweet of Akshay Lakra saying he is the same person who blackened the face of Veer Savarkar and other freedom fighters. He also said the video shared is just 10 seconds long, requesting to stop the propaganda.

In August 2019, Akshay Lakra in fact garlanded Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Savarkar with slippers and smeared black ink on it. It happened over a newly installed statue of Savarkar in the Delhi University campus. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, commonly known as Swatantryaveer Savarkar or just Veer Savarkar was an Indian independence activist, politician, lawyer and writer who popularized the Hindutva philosophy. He also had varied views on Muslims and Christians.

After the two allegations related to Jamia protests, Bharat Sharma faced many threats and abuses on himself and his family members. Consequently, he deleted his Facebook account.

Hoax or Fact:

Mixture of Hoax and Facts.

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