The violence in JNU was amplified by a dangerous mix of misinformation and rumours circulated on social media. Later many videos went viral with people taking sides. One such video that was rapidly circulated on the social media was of a man in red jacket beating a man wearing a green shirt in the JNU campus.



The video was tweeted by several journalists and BJP leaders alleging that violence in the campus was perpetrated by the Left-leaning outfits who were trying to scuttle the winter semester registration process.



In fact public broadcaster Prasar Bharati also tweeted the video making a similar allegation.

Video bears witness to #JNU VC @mamidala90's statement that those opposing registration for Winter session of #JNU are behind violence to scuttle the academic process of varsity. pic.twitter.com/JWr4n81GbW Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) January 6, 2020



The tweet said the video bears witness to JNU V-C Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar's statement that "those opposing registration for winter session of #JNU are behind violence to scuttle the academic process of varsity."



It was retweeted by JNU V-C himself and also by Amit Malviya and other BJP office-bearers.



BJP IT head and convenor BJP Himachal Chetan Bragta also shared the video with the comment:

FACT CHECK OF THE VIDEO



Debunking false news, India Today TV got to the root of the story and found how a false story was being spread by people in responsible posts and also many journalists.



India Today did a fact check on the video and found out that the video is of January 4 and the location is the School of International Studies (SIS) and SL Lawns.



We tracked the tall man wearing the green clothing who was receiving blows from the man in the red jacket.



Vivek Pandey is a first year MA student and is a member of All India students Association (AISA).



"I am not an ABVP activist and I am associated with AISA. The video that you see is of SIS and SL lawns. We were just trying to request students to not register and we were doing it peacefully when a group led by dean Ashwini Mahapatra and professor Tapan Bihari reached there and started heckling and beating up students," Vivek alleged.



"The one in the red jacket hitting me is Sharvendra, who is an ABVP activist and close to Dean Ashwini Mahapatra. Yet an opposite narrative is being built," he added.



In fact two other classmates of Sharvendra Kumar confirmed his identity to India Today but are not willing to share their names. He is a common face in the campus. He is a third year PhD student at Centre for West Asian Studies, SIS, JNU.



A picture of Ashwini Mahapatra with Sharvendra and other students outside one Barbecue Nation is also available. The one in hello circle with spectacles is the dean while the other person is Sharvendra.



There are pictures of Sharvendra with JNU Vice-Chancellor and the Dean of SIS Ashwini Mahapatra.



A picture shared by @labinit, the account also deactivated, Sharvendra is seen with the V-C at 6th northern regional social science congress according to the details shared in the tweet now not available.

His Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts have been deactivated but in the photo below shared by Twitter handle @ijangidshiva Sharvendra is seen with his ABVP colleagues wearing a tag.

Vivek has alleged that the Vice-Chancellor is aware that Sharvendra is associated with the ABVP still he retweeted the video just to mislead people that the violence was perpetrated by Left students.



The story is a testimony to how social media turned out to be a potent weapon to spread lies and falsehood.