2018 video of mob chasing Rajasthan MLA Ramkesh Meena shared with communal claim

What's the claim?

A video showing a mob chasing and beating a man is circulating widely on social media, claiming to show a Congress leader named Abdul being pursued and beaten by a mob for removing a saffron flag. An X (formerly Twitter) user sharing the clip wrote in Hindi, “In Rajasthan, Congress leader Abdul was chased and beaten by the public for taking down the saffron flag, and the process has already begun (translation).” The post had over 455,000 views and over 4,500 reposts at the time of writing this article. Archived versions of the posts can be found here and here.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is being incorrectly shared with a communal angle. It does not depict a Muslim Congress leader being chased. The man being chased in the video is Ramkesh Meena, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Rajasthan, and the video is from 2018.

What we found

Through a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video we found a News 18 report (archived here) from April 7, 2018, that included a screenshot from the same clip. According to the report, the man in the video being chased was identified as then-MLA Ramkesh Meena. The report stated that Meena and his supporters were protesting against amendments to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (Also known as the ST SC Act) and led a rally on April 2, which was the day that a nationwide strike, called Bharat Bandh, was announced.

According to a report by the Hindu, the Bharat Bandh on April 2, 2018, was called by various Dalit groups and organizations in India in protest against a Supreme Court ruling on March 20, 2018, which introduced new guidelines for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (SC/ST Act).

The News 18 report added that as the situation in Gangapur City was intensified by the protestors on April 2, Ramkesh Meena attempted to calm the rioters but was attacked by the enraged mob.

Screenshot of the News 18 report. (Source: X/News 18/Markup by Logically Facts)

We also discovered a Facebook post (archived here) from April 2018 featuring the viral video, with a caption saying it showed "miscreants" beating and tearing the clothes of former Gangapur City MLA Ramkesh Meena during the Bharat Bandh on April 2 in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The video shows the mob chasing and attacking Meena, who had led the rally that day with his supporters. While trying to reason with the rioters, the furious crowd turned on Meena.

This evidence shows that an old video is being shared in the wrong context.

Ramkesh Meena was involved in a controversy in July 2021 when a saffron flag was removed from Amargarh Fort in Jaipur when he was present. However, the now-viral video is unrelated to that incident.

The verdict

In the video, Ramkesh Meena is seen being chased by an enraged mob that was protesting the modifications to the SC/ST Act. It does not show Congress leader Abdul being attacked for taking the saffron flag down.