Clip From Short Film Viral With False Communal Angle, Linked to Haryana Violence

The video's producer Vipin Pandey told The Quint that it was from a short film which was shot in Lucknow.

A video showing several men, including some dressed in the khaki uniform, pinning an injured man to the ground is being shared on social media, where users have linked it to the recent communal violence in parts of Haryana.

The claim: Those sharing the video are claiming that it shows a Muslim man being punished in Haryana's Mewat, where communal violence broke out after a stones were allegedly pelted at a religious procession on 31 July.

The Quint received multiple queries for this video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline.

(Archives of more claims can be seen here and here.)

But...?: The viral clip is from a Hindi short film titled Dosti ki saja (the punishment for friendship), which was produced and directed by one Vipin Pandey, a resident of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. It has no connection to the violence in Haryana.

How did we find out?: We took a screenshot from the viral video and ran a reverse image search on it.

• This led us to a post on Facebook shared a video by Vipin Pandey.

• The video shared in this post was published on 28 July, three days before violence broke out in Haryana.

• On Pandey's post, he commented saying that the video was made "while shooting, please do not post wrong comments."

• It was shared with the caption, "Coming soon video So please support my youtube channel," with a link that led us to his YouTube channel.

• Here, we found that this viral clip was uploaded on 28 July.

On this channel, we came across a short film titled Dosti ki saja (the punishment of friendship), which showed the same people as seen in the viral claim.

(Swipe to view both images.)

The film mentioned that it was "inspired by real events" and was produced and directed by Vipin Pandey.

The Quint reached out to Pandey, who confirmed that he had made the short film and he was the man seen pinned to the ground in the video.

• "This is my video which was taken during shooting. I do my work and I shoot [films] too," he told us.

• The video was filmed in a lane near his house in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, he said, adding that "everyone – Hindus and Muslims who live here – work together and cooperate while shooting. It is wrong that it being shared like this."

Conclusion: A video taken in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow during the filming process of a short film is being shared with a false claim which links it to the recent communal violence in Haryana.

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