Fake News about a man beaten up for tearing Portuguese Flag in Kerala.
Claim
Only in India! Cristiano Ronaldo fans in Kerala have beaten up a Hindu supremacist after he tore up the national flag of Portugal, confusing it as the flag of the Social Democratic Party of India. #FIFAWorldCup2022
Rating
Explanation
The FIFA Football World Cup 2022 is going on in Qatar and the Football fever had gripped the state of Kerala, known for its love of Football and international Football stars. Many cutouts of various Football stars have been put on display across the state which includes flags of those countries they are rooting for.
One such flag of Portugal was put up by fans of Cristiano Ronaldo in Kerala’s Panoor village in the Kannur District and it was torn down by an individual who is claimed to be from the BJP, who mistook the flag for the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a political party stemmed out of the now banned Popular Front of India (PFI). A photo is being virally shared on social media that the person who tore down the Portuguese flag was beaten up, which is also shared by some news outlets.
What’s the truth?
The viral posts in social media claim that Deepak E, a BJP worker, was beaten up in Panoor for tearing up the Portuguese flag. We contacted the Panoor Police Station for further details, and they confirmed that the Portuguese flag was torn down, but the incident did not lead to any violence or attack. They also confirmed to us that there was no FIR filed at that time regarding this issue.
Following this, we contacted BJP’s Panoor Mandal President Advocate Shiji Lal and he clarified “the person who tore down the flag has no connection with the BJP whatsoever and if his actions lead to further consequences, he should face it on his own.”
From the video (link here), it is evident that the person who tore down the flag and the person who is claimed to be beaten up are not the same. However, we were not able to find out the identity or the location of the person in the viral picture.
Conclusion
In our search, we found that the person who tore down the Portuguese flag in Kerala was not beaten up for doing so and the person in the virally shared image is not him.
