Video of a Cop Heckled By Mob in MP's Damoh Falsely Shared as One From Haldwani

This video is from Damoh, Madhya Pradesh and shows a cop trying to handle a crowd of 40 odd men.

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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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.

• 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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