A video showing uniformed Army personnel pinning a man to the ground and beating him is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it shows the Indian Army assaulting protesters in Delhi during demonstrations demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
The viral video is being circulated with allegations that the Indian Army has been deployed in Delhi to suppress the protests, with some social media users claiming that the alleged action was carried out on the orders of Lieutenant General Rajesh Sethi.
A Facebook user posted the viral post with the following caption:
दिल्ली में तनाव का माहौल: विरोध प्रदर्शनों पर कड़ा पहरा 🚨Protesting in Delhi has become a crime. #IndianArmy has been deployed, markets are being shut down,and protesters are being beaten. There is widespread oppression and brutality in #Delhi. 🚨This brutality is being carried out on the orders of Lieutenant General Rajesh Sethi.
ENGLISH: दिल्ली में तनाव का माहौल: विरोध प्रदर्शनों पर कड़ा पहरा 🚨Protesting in Delhi has become a crime. #IndianArmy has been deployed, markets are being shut down,and protesters are being beaten. There is widespread oppression and brutality in #Delhi. 🚨This brutality is being carried out on the orders of Lieutenant General Rajesh Sethi.
You can check the post here.
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile investigated the viral post and found the claims to be false.
To verify the video, we conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral footage.
The search led us to an X post shared by journalist Shahid Tantray on April 15, 2017, featuring a longer version of the same video. In the extended footage, four uniformed personnel can be seen allegedly assaulting the man. Tantray identified the incident as having taken place in South Kashmir. This established that the video had been available online for more than nine years before the recent demonstrations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Taking the investigation further, we conducted a keyword search and found a report published by The Indian Express on April 15, 2017, featuring a screenshot matching the viral footage.
According to the report, four Indian Army personnel had allegedly assaulted a student of Pulwama Degree College in Jammu and Kashmir.
The report also referred to other videos that had surfaced around the same time, including footage purportedly showing a Kashmiri man tied to an Army jeep and another incident in which youths were allegedly forced to chant anti-Pakistan slogans.
These videos had sparked controversy and condemnation in Kashmir.
At the time, Defence spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia stated that the authenticity of the videos was being examined and that action would be taken against personnel found guilty of misconduct.
We also found a report published by Deccan Herald on April 15, 2017, which carried a screenshot from the same video.
The report similarly identified the individual being assaulted as a student of Pulwama Degree College and stated that the footage purportedly showed four Army personnel beating him.
These reports confirm that the footage was already circulating in April 2017 in connection with an alleged assault in Kashmir, long before the October 2026 protests in Delhi.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral post, claiming to show Indian Army assaulting protesters in Delhi during demonstrations demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, is false.
