“Someone in the crowd noticed that one of the officials had this baton with nails.
We are not sure whether they used it, but the video is definitely from yesterday.
Gaur uploaded the video with the claim that Delhi Police were carrying sticks with nails.
However, there is no evidence to prove that the baton was actually used to hit protestors.
Delhi Police’s claim that “these videos are not related to yesterday’s protest” is false.
We spoke to a protester present at the site. Though he did not want to be named, he confirmed to Alt News on July 21 that he was among the group that confronted the police officials the previous day. “Someone in the crowd noticed that one of the officials had this baton with nails. We are not sure whether they used it, but the video is definitely from yesterday. The policeman’s name was Vishal Tomar. When we confronted them, everyone, including the senior police officers, ignored us. They did not reply to us,” he said.
The video shared by Aswhini Soni (the one that Delhi Police ‘fact checked’) was originally posted on Instagram by a user named Rahul Gaur (@Gaur_95_com). Gaur uploaded the video with the claim that Delhi Police were carrying sticks with nails. When Alt News reached out to him, he said, “I recorded the video myself. I was there in person.”
So, from the above evidences — videos procured by Alt News, their metadata, geo-location of the spot and witness testimonies — it can be conclusively proved that during the protest on July 20, a Delhi Police official was seen carrying a baton with nails attached to it, and police officials were confronted by protesters about it. However, there is no evidence to prove that the baton was actually used to hit protestors.
Delhi Police’s claim that “these videos are not related to yesterday’s protest” is false.
This story was originally published by Altnews and has been republished with permission.
