A video showing a police personnel addressing the mob aggressively is going viral on social media to claim that this recently happened in Haldwani, Uttarakhand.
Some context: Violence erupted in Uttarakhand's Haldwani on Thursday, 8 February after a local mazar and madrasa were demolished in an alleged anti-encroachment drive, resulting in six confirmed deaths and hundreds of police officers injured.
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(Source: X/Screenshot)
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What's the truth?: This video is from Damoh, Madhya Pradesh.
Damoh's SP office confirmed to us that this fight started between a group of men from the Hindu community and a tailor from the Muslim community.
This further escalated to a big fight where the police had to intervene.
How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search which led us to a video report by Times of India from 6 February 2024.
The video matched with the viral video and the titled stated, " Damoh cop surrounded by Muslim mob".
The description of the video stated that the Damoh police officer, Shri Anand Singh Thakur, was surrounded by people belonging to the Muslim community.
This also led us to reports about the incident from Damoh, Madhya Pradesh.
A report by Free Press Journal shared on 4 February stated that several members of a "certain community" staged a protest outside a police station in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, following a fight between a tailor and a group of men.
It stated that the Damoh police registered a case against four people.
The report is from 4 February 2024.
(Source: FPJ/screenshot)
An article shared on 4 February 2024 by Dainik Bhaskar carried the same video, and it further stated that a group of youth "misbehaved with the Imam of the mosque who had come to intervene in the ongoing dispute".
We also found reports by Navbharat Times and The Print. These reports specified that the crowd gathered at the police station demanding to arrest an accused, wherein the police intervened.
It added that when the police started dispersing the crowd, Akram Khan, addressing the crowd on a mobile loudspeaker, allegedly threatened the accused involved in the mishandling of the Muslim cleric.
We reached out to the police: We spoke with Damoh's Superintendent of Police (SP), Sunil Tiwari, who confirmed to us that the viral video is from Damoh, Madhya Pradesh.
He said, "The matter started on 3 February in Damoh when a group of Hindu men started a fight with a Muslim tailor over clothes. This escalated into a big fight when Muslim people joined in the fight from the nearby mosque. Following this, a lot of people gathered around, and somebody held the Imam's collar, after which the crowd got agitated."
After these matters, the police registered two cases. One of the cases was against four people involved in the initial fight, and the second was a case against 40 persons under sections 153A [promoting enmity between different groups], 143 [unlawful assembly] and 147 [rioting] of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Similar video was also viral with a different misleading claim and you can read our fact-check here.
Conclusion: A video from Damoh, Madhya Pradesh showing a police personnel in middle of a mob is being falsely shared as from Haldwani, Uttarakhand.
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