Old Visuals of Raid Conducted at Engineer’s House in Karnataka Shared as Recent

A video of some people removing cash from a pipe is going viral with a claim that it shows a recent raid at an engineer's house working at the Public Works Department (PWD).

What have users said?: People shared the video with a caption that said, "In Central Government PWD department engineer’s house raid in one pipe Rs 13 crores recovered, 19 pipes are still pending to check. We all should learn a little bit basic economics, how Indian economy remains sustainable (sic)."

(You can view other archives of similar posts here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The video could be traced back to November 2021, when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducted a raid at a junior engineer's house working in PWD in Karnataka.

How did we find out?: We performed a keyword search on Facebook and came across a post dating back to November 2021, which carried the viral video.

• It was uploaded with a caption that said, "Cash being removed from a drainage pipe at a PWD junior engineer house during Anti-Corruption Bureau raid in Karnataka."

• An archive of a different post can be accessed here.

News reports: The Quint published a report in 2021 which said that bundles of cash were retrieved from a drainage pipeline during a raid conducted by ACB in Karnataka.

• The incident happened outside the residence of a PWD engineer named Shantha Gowda Biradar.

• The video shows a plumber digging out the currency. It went viral on social media on 24 November 2021.

• The report further said that the raid was purportedly a part of a statewide crackdown on alleged corrupt government officials.

• A report in The News Minute added that around Rs 13 lakh was recovered from the drainage pipe.

• The ACB officials conducted a raid at the engineer's house in Kalaburagi and seized around Rs 54 lakh in cash.

• The report further said that the officials were seen collecting all the cash falling out of the drainage pipeline in a yellow bucket — which one could see in the viral video.

• English daily Hindustan Times, on their official YouTube channel, posted visuals from the raid which also shows people collecting money in a yellow bucket.

Conclusion: An old video of ACB officials conducting a raid at a junior engineer's house in Karnataka is being falsely shared on the internet as a recent incident from the state.

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