Bharat Tiwari, a 26-year-old social media activist from Bihar’s Bhojpur district, died on June 18, after being shot in a police encounter.
Police claimed he opened fire during an arrest attempt, while his family alleged he had surrendered before being shot, citing a Facebook Live video. The incident triggered widespread protests, suspension of police personnel and a judicial inquiry ordered by the Bihar government.
In the above context, a video has gone viral on social media in which a mob is seen chasing a police officer on the road and later catches him and beats him.
The video has gone viral on social media, with users claiming it depicts the aftermath of the Bharat Bhushan Tiwari encounter in Bhojpur, Bihar. The footage shows people running after a policeman and attacking him, with some users alleging that tensions between police and locals are escalating following the encounter.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “Following the murder of Bharat Bhushan Tiwari, the anger of Bihar's public towards the police has intensified... Videos are emerging from other districts of Bihar showing friction between the public and the Bihar Police...Bihar's Chief Minister @samrat4bjp should shed his arrogance and take strict action against the Bihar Police in the Bharat Tiwari case to restore trust between the common public and the police, and if the Chief Minister is not letting go of his stubbornness, then Prime Minister @narendramodi ji should take cognisance of this and take some concrete step...”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral video is from April, when a young man named Rakesh Kumar Yadav died in police custody in Katihar.
On a Google reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led to an X user ‘The Nalanda Index’, who had shared the same video on April 6, criticising Bihar’s law and order situation.
The video was shared with a caption that reads, “Is Law & Order in Bihar Collapsing? It’s deeply concerning to see incidents where even police personnel are being attacked by the public. This raises serious questions about the current state of law and order in Bihar.”
The video shared by The Nalanda Index has the logo of Bihar first, a hyperlocal Bihari news channel. We further found that the same video was shared by the Bihar first’s X handle on April 4.
The video was shared with a caption that reads, “Chaos in Katihar after death in custody, crowd chased and beat police, snatched rifle and vandalised the station; in this case, the SP has suspended Station House Officer Ravi Kumar Rai.”
We found that the video was also shared by Dainik Jagran on April 4. The report associated with the video suggests that a man died in police custody in Bihar's Katihar district, triggering violent protests by angry locals. The mob attacked police personnel, vandalised vehicles, and snatched a police rifle during the clash. Authorities deployed additional forces to bring the situation under control, while an investigation was launched into the custodial death and the subsequent violence.
