Amid the ongoing Gyanvapi mosque land dispute case, a video of police thrashing people publicly on streets is going viral on social media with a claim that it shows Uttar Pradesh police thrashing people during the Gyanvapi survey.
However, the video dates back to 2021 when Samajwadi Party workers were beaten up by the UP police for shouting anti-government slogans during the zila (district) panchayat chairpersons’ election.
CLAIM
The caption of the viral post says, "ज्ञानवापी का सर्वे नही होने देंगे बस इतना ही कहना था नेता जी का! उत्तर प्रदेश पुलिस ने नेता पर किया सर्वे"
[Translation: Gyanvapi's survey will not take place, that's all the leader had to say! So Uttar Pradesh Police did a survey on the leader]
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Using InVID, a video verification tool, we divided the video into multiple keyframes and ran reverse image searches on some of them.
We came across a tweet by Samajwadi Party (SP) that included the viral video. This was tweeted on 3 July 2021.
The tweet read in Hindi, "The lathicharge done by police on the SP workers in Prayagraj on the orders of the chief minister is highly condemnable. The hollow celebration of victory achieved by suppression of power will not last long. The youth, farmers, women, daughters of the state will form the SP government in 2022."
The same incident was reported by a news daily Navbharat Times on 3 July 2021. It stated that SP workers were raising anti-government slogans publicly during the election polls in Prayagraj when police started thrashing them to control the situation.
Another report by Hindustan Times posted on 4 July 2021 mentioned that the SP has alleged that its party workers were lathicharged in most districts of the state while the district panchayat chairpersons’ elections were taking place.
Next, we noticed a board saying 'Chhappan Bhog' in the video, taking a cue from there, we found the shop located at Prayagraj on Google Maps.
The shop is named 'Chhappan Bhog Sweet Shop & Family Cuisine Restaurant' on the maps.
The comparison between the two images confirms the location to be Prayagraj, UP.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
We also found an image of the same shop named Chhappan Bhog from a food delivery service Zomato.
The comparison between the two images confirmed the location to be Prayagraj, UP.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
This confirms that the video was from Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
Clearly, an old video of SP workers getting thrashed by the UP police is being linked falsely with the Gyanvapi survey.
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