CLAIM
A video showing people distributing money is being circulated with the claim that it is from Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area, where in women have been protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act for over a month now.
The claim mentions that the people who are allegedly spreading rumours about Rs 500 being paid to the protesters for sitting in the protest are now distributing Rs 500. The claim reads: “Shaheen bagh me 500rs ki jhooti afwah pehlane wale khud 500rs baat rahe hai (sic)” (Translated: People in Shaheen Bagh who were spreading the rumour of Rs 500 are now distributing Rs 500)
Several social media users have shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim along with the video is false. Not only is the video old, it is also not from Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area, as claimed. Instead, it is from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad and dates back to October 2019.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We divided the video into multiple keyframes and reverse searched each frame, which led us to a YouTube video uploaded on 17 October 2019 with the caption: जन आशीर्वाद यात्रा: रघुबर दास सरकार की नयी योजना- रैली में आओ Rs 500 पाओ ! (Translated: Public rally: Raghubar Das government’s new scheme- Come to the rally and get Rs 500)
We also found a YouTube video uploaded by local news website Newswing on 17 October 2019 with the caption: ‘Dhanbad: CM Raghubar Das की सभा में भीड़ जुटाने के लिए बांटे गये दो-दो सौ रुपये, वीडियो वायरल’ (Translated: Dhanbad: To get more people in CM Raghubar Das’ rally, Rs 200 were distributed, video viral)
Newswing had also published an article on the same date, claiming that the BJP had distributed lakhs of money to make the then Jharkhand chief minister’s rally successful.
A local reporter, too, corroborated with the aforementioned details and said that the video is indeed from Jharkhand and had gone viral in October 2019.
Further, we found that the text written on the T-shirts of the people seen in the video, reads: ‘Abki baar 65 paar,’ which was set as the BJP’s target by former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das in July 2019 for the Assembly polls.
"Abki baar painsath paar (This time, we will cross 65 seats). There is not an iota of doubt in people giving an absolute mandate to us. We will win by a thumping majority as the message of development under the leadership of Prime Minister Narenda Modi has percolated down to the masses," he had then told PTI in an interview.
In the 2019 Jharkhand election results, the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), managed to secure a simple majority on their own, winning 43 out of 81 seats (including leads) while the BJP won 28 seats.
Clearly, an old video from Jharkhand is being circulated to claim that the people who had allegedly spread rumours about Rs 500 being paid to Shaheen Bagh protesters, are now distributing the same.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)