2 weeks ago
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An old video from Telangana has resurfaced on social media platforms with a false claim that the footage shows a Bharatiya Janata Party leader assaulting a pastor in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Several captions also misidentify the assaulter in the video as a BJP minister from Kanyakumari.
BOOM had debunked the video in 2018, when it went viral with a similar false claim. We found that the video shows an incident that took place in Telangana on May 27, 2018, when a church member assaulted the pastor following an internal dispute.
The video shows disturbing visuals of a man confronting the priest, then grabbing his microphone and assaulting him. The people present in the church later intervene and stop the man from further assaulting the priest.
The video is being shared with a caption on Facebook and WhatsApp, "CSI Church Bangalore Video shows BJP leader Ayar snatching the microphone and hitting him on the head during a worship service. People should take a good decision for their anarchy in this election."
Click here to view an archive of the post.
The video is also circulating on Facebook with captions misidentifying the assaulter as a DMK minister from Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Click here to view the video and here for an archive.
It is also circulating with a Tamil caption as an incident from Kanyakumari on the X platform.
Fact Check
In 2018, BOOM debunked the same video when it went viral falsely claiming that a member of the BJP attacked the pastor at a church in Bengaluru.
We then found the video within a TV9 Telugu report dated May 27, 2018, which mentions that the incident occurred at a Church of South India (CSI) establishment in Bhadradri Kothagudem, Telangana.
Click here to view an archive of the post.
Following that lead, we then reached out to Reverend R Israel Reddy, a member of the CSI Dornakal Diocese, which has jurisdiction over the mentioned church. Reddy also confirmed that Pastor Anand Rao of Christ Church in Bhadrachalam town was indeed assaulted by a member of the community on May 27, 2018.
Reddy told BOOM, "The man who assaulted Pastor Rao is Shantakumar Kolapudi who was till last year the secretary of the church committee. We expelled him from the committee last year due to some problems he created. On Sunday (the day of the incident) after Pastor Rao delivered the morning sermon, Kolapudi approached the pastor and asked him about the expulsion and asked when will he be reinstated. When the pastor did not give a satisfactory answer, Kolapudi hit him with a microphone.”
He further clarified that Kolapudi was a regular attendee of the church, and no extremist groups or political party members were involved in the attack on the pastor.
