Bharat Bhushan Tiwari, a 28-year-old social activist from Bilauti village in Bihar’s Bhojpur district in Bihar, was killed in a police encounter on June 17.

Police claimed he opened fire on officers during a standoff and was shot in retaliatory action. However, videos circulating on social media allegedly show Tiwari surrendering his weapon moments before the shooting, prompting allegations of a fake encounter. The incident sparked widespread protests, political controversy, suspension of police personnel, and a judicial inquiry ordered by the Bihar government.

In the above context, a video of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar criticising an encounter has gone viral on social media. In the video, Kumar is heard saying that the decision to punish someone should be made by a court, not through extrajudicial killings.

The video is shared with a caption suggesting that it shows his reaction to the recent police encounter of Bharat Bhushan Tiwari in Bhojpur, Bihar.

A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “Former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar comes out in support of Bharat Tiwari #NitishKumar” (Translated from Hindi)

SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The video is from 2023 and shows Nitish Kumar reacting to the killing of gangster Atiq Ahmed in Uttar Pradesh.

On searching with relevant keywords, we found that the same video was uploaded by the Jansatta YouTube channels on April 17, 2023. In his statement, Kumar had said that killing criminals is ‘never a solution’ and termed the incident ‘extremely tragic’. He had also questioned how shooters could breach the security cordon.

At that time, Nitish Kumar was commenting on the killing of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, who were shot dead while in police custody in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The caption read, “Atiq Ahmed Update: Nitish Kumar raised questions about Atiq Ahmed’s death, angrily asking (Nitish Kumar on Yogi Adityanath) ‘Will you kill anyone?’ Listen to the full statement.”

The incident was also shared by The Navbharat Times on April 17, 2023.

According to the report, following the killing of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in police custody in April 2023, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar criticised the incident, questioning the idea of eliminating criminals through killings. He said that if someone is a criminal, legal action should be taken against them, asking, “What does eliminating criminals mean? Will you kill them?” Kumar stressed that the rule of law must prevail and criminals should be punished through due process rather than extrajudicial actions.

Bihar Tak also shared the same video on April 17, 2023, suggesting that Nitish Kumar lashed out at the Yogi government over Atiq Ahmad's death in police custody.

We also found no reports of Nitish Kumar’s reaction to Bhushan Tiwari's killing. Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.