The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) held a massive protest in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on October 2, led by its founder Abhijeet Dipke. the CJP demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, freezing of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls and action regarding the alleged irregularities in voter registrations.
After the protest a video is being widely shared on social media platforms which features an assualt on founder Dipke and people allegedly slapping him.
During the investigation we found that the video being circulated as recent is old and viral claim is misleading.
Claim:
X user Deepak Sharma shared the viral video on his profile with misleading claim. The caption claimed that the video was recent and from Mumbai.
Other users are also sharing the video with similar claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by checking the current news reports if any such incident happened. We did not find any credible news reports stating that there was an assault on CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke.
We then ran a Google reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
We found the keyframe on a YouTube video uploaded on The Tribune three months ago.
The description said: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was allegedly slapped and manhandled by a crowd ahead of his scheduled address in Jaipur. The incident occurred amid controversy over permission for the protest and heightened political tensions. Police intervened to control the situation as supporters condemned the attack and demanded accountability.
We also found a video uploaded by NDTV on their YouTube channel.
youtube.com/shorts/
There were several news reports about the incident also.
The Indian Express report said, “During the party’s maiden protest at Shaheed Smarak in Jaipur, Dipke was lifted upon his arrival by supporters who were carrying him on their shoulders to the stage. However, just as Dipke entered the ground and was waving at the crowd, 5-6 persons allegedly started slapping and assaulting him.”
The news report in The Print said: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was allegedly slapped multiple times by two men while supporters carried him on their shoulders during a protest here on Monday, police said. Two youths have been detained in connection with the incident, they said.
Other news media organizations too had carried the report.
Conclusion: June video from Jaipur where CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was assaulted now shared as recent from his protest in Mumbai. The viral claim is misleading.
