On social media, a video depicting police officers pounding a few individuals on the street late at night has gone viral, with the allegation that it is from Kanpur. The allegation was proved to be false by India Today’s Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA).
On Friday, June 3, Kanpur was the scene of stone-pelting and mayhem. According to estimates, 36 individuals have been detained and 1,000 more are being held on suspicion of rioting and attempted murder. Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has ordered the police to find those guilty and prosecute them.
Several footages of police intervention against accused rioters have gone viral on social media. A video shows police officers pounding a few males on the street late at night.
This viral video has been shared by several verified Twitter profiles and Facebook users, along with a Hindi caption that reads, “The scriptures have deemed these unusual sounds emanating from Kanpur’s streets at midnight to be auspicious. Jihadi stone pelters are being well-cared for by Babaji’s police.”
The Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) of India Today has discovered that the viral video is neither new nor from Kanpur. This film was shot in the Mumbai neighborhood of Thane, Maharashtra, in the year 2020.
In addition to various accusations, a reverse image search of the viral video’s keyframes revealed that the film had already spread on the internet.
Some internet users said the video was shot in Indore during the Covid shutdown, while others claimed it was shot in Telangana. Several people questioned the viral claims, claiming that the video was shot in Mumbra, Thane.
Using this as a starting point, we conducted a keyword search in Hindi and discovered many news items published on Hindi news portals that detailed the true narrative behind the video.
The YouTube news channel “Hindustani Reporter” posted a news clip along with the same viral video to describe an occurrence. The incident occurred on March 27, 2020, at Kausa, Mumbra’s Shree Lanka district, when followers of two local politicians fought, according to this report. To disperse the throng and recover control of the situation, the police used a lathi-charge.
As a result, it is evident that a two-year-old film from Maharashtra is being shared under the false pretense of showing police activity in Kanpur following the recent Friday unrest.
