A video showing a massive crowd gathered near a police station is going viral on social media to claim that the police was "taking action against cow smugglers" in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh.
The claim further states that more than 2,000 people from the Muslim communities "manhandled" the police officers.
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)
What's the truth?: This video is unrelated to the cow smuggling gangs.
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 reverse image search of the keyframes of the video along with a relevant keyword search on Google.
This 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 reached out to the police: We spoke with Damoh's Superintendent of Police (SP), Sunil Tiwari, who confirmed to us that the viral claim about the police "taking action against cow smugglers" is false.
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).
Conclusion: A false claim is being shared with a video of a massive crowd to claim that police in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh took action against "cow smugglers".
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