Fact check: Woman dragged down UP cop by his collar; video shows what happened

Police brutality is heavily frowned upon, but it appears that's not what happened in UP's Kanpur Dehat district. An Uttar Pradesh police officer was accused of overpowering a woman as photos of the incident went viral on social media, drawing flak towards the police and the BJP-led government in the state. Now, a video has surfaced that shows what exactly happened.

The claim

Photographs of the UP cop sitting on top of the woman have gone viral on the social media. The incident reportedly took place on Saturday. The cop in the picture was accused of overpowering a woman, by pinning her to the ground and hitting her as he sat on top of her in Kanpur Dehat district.

According to reports, sub-inspector Mahendra Patel had an altercation with the woman in Durgadaspur village while he was looking for Shivam Yadav, who according to the police, had threatened a candidate in the panchayat elections. Yadav's wife, Aarti spoke to the media, while accusing the police officer of slapping her and hitting her badly after sitting atop her. She said the villagers intervened and rescued her.

The incident drew strong reactions and the UP police received a lot of flak.

Fact check

International Business Times reviewed the claims made on social media and corroborated the same with official statements issued by the police.

The police official said that Yadav was gambling with a few friends and was caught by the police but his mother and wife clung to him which led to a scuffle between Patel and the women. They also said that Yadav's wife, Aarti Yadav, fell down during the scuffle.

An 8-second video clip shared by Kanpur Dehat Police shows the UP cop grabbed by his collar by the woman who was pinned to the ground as the officer was on top of her. A villager can be seen escorting the officer away from the woman, but no where in the video it can be confirmed that the police officer hit the woman.

"In the video, one can see the woman was holding the chowki in-charge's collar.. when the woman unclenched his collar he immediately got up and left," the Kanpur Dehat Superintendent of Police Keshav Chaudhary stated.

The video also starts abruptly and it is not clear what happened moments before to confirm the police statement or that of the woman. However, the Kanpur Dehat SP confirmed that a probe into the allegations against the officer for misbehaving and hitting them is currently underway.

"The official has been line-attached to carry out a non-partisan investigation," the SP said.

After reviewing the statements, videos and images, IBTimes has arrived at the conclusion that claims of abuse by the police officer based on a single picture are misleading and the video released by the police is proof of that.