Video from Chennai passed off as youth slapping police in Andhra Pradesh

What is the claim?

A social media user on X (formerly Twitter) shared a video of a man slapping a police personnel with a claim that it is from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The user (post archived here) urges the public to vote for the Opposition alliance in the state — Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Jana Sena.

The current chief minister of the state if YSR Congress Party's (YSRCP) Jagan Mohan Reddy. Archive of similar posts can be found here and here.

Screenshot of the claim circulating online (Source:Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, and not Andhra Pradesh.

What is the fact?

A reverse image search on the keyframes of this video showed us that it has been on the internet since 2017. We came across a news report by the The Times Of India from December 24, 2017, titled, “Chennai: Student slaps cops for doing duty, video goes viral.” The report, which included the now-viral video, stated that a police personnel in Chennai stopped the youth for having two pillion riders on his two-wheeler, a violation of traffic rules, and the 21-year-old student slapped the policeman after an argument. The report added that the accused was arrested. 

News portal OneIndia (archive here) lso uploaded this video on its YouTube channel on December 30, 2017.

Screenshot of the 2017 OneIndia video report (Source: YouTube/OneIndiaNews/Screenshot)

Another report by The Hindu from December 26, 2017, stated that the incident took place in Kumaran Nagar, a locality in North Chennai, the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Taking a cue from this, we contacted the Kumaran Nagar police station. An official at the police station, who wished to remain unnamed, clarified that this incident happened in 2017, and the police official seen in the video, Maheshwaran Pillai, worked as a constable at the police station. Pillai is now posted at another police station.

The verdict

A video of an incident of a civilian slapping a police personnel in Chennai in 2017 has been shared with a false claim that it took place in Andhra Pradesh under the Jagan Mohan Reddy.