As the central government allowed the sale of liquor in the third phase of lockdown, multiple videos and photos on social media, which showed long queues outside liquor stores, went viral.
While lockdown norms were flouted at various places, a particular video, which garnered over thousands of views on Facebook, was found to be old.
The video showed people crowding outside a wine shop in the national capital’s Paharganj area. When we got in touch with the store owner, he told us that the video was actually from February 2020.
CLAIM
The claim questioned the implementation of lockdown norms and social distancing. A portion of the text, when translated in English reads: “There are already 40,000 cases... why is the government not serious?”
Several social media users have shared the viral video on Facebook and Twitter with similar claims.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On carefully examining the video, we noticed a board of ‘Hotel Aman Inn’ and searched for ‘Hotel Aman Inn Delhi’ on Google. This led us to the hotel by the same name, located in Delhi’s Paharganj area.
On viewing the pictures of the hotel, we came across one that was uploaded on Trivago and saw a liquor shop located next to the hotel.
Further, one can see that people in the viral video are wearing winter clothes. Another indicator and a red flag that the video wasn’t recent.
Paharganj SHO Sunil Chauhan mentioned that the video does not show the recent situation of the area.
“This video is definitely old. This liquor shop is a private one and only government liquor shops have been allowed to open.”Sunil Chauhan, SHO Paharganj
We also got in touch with the nearby shop owners, who too corroborated that the shop is closed and that the video in question is old.
Vineet, owner of Pearl Hotel (near the wine shop), confirmed that the wine shop was indeed the one next to Aman Inn in Paharganj and that the video was old.
We also spoke to Manu Chadha, owner of a bar located next to the liquor shop, who too, corroborated that the video in question is old.
LIQUOR SHOP OWNER SAYS VIDEO IS FROM FEBRUARY
Vipin Kalra, owner of the liquor shop seen in the video told The Quint that the video is old and dates back to February 2020.
“The viral video is not from the present times. It is from 8 February, when the polling for Delhi election had concluded and I opened the shop in the evening after being closed for two consecutive days. Hence, there was so much rush in the shop.”Vipin Kalra, owner of liquor shop
He further said that he hasn’t opened the shop for over one and a half months now because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
While there were reports that people did flout social distancing rules at liquor shops on Monday, 4 May, this particular viral video is an old one and not related to the current situation.
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