A video showing bundles of Indian currency notes stacked together is being circulated on the internet with users linking it to the recent seizure of cash of around Rs 5 crore in Pune, Maharashtra.
What do viral posts say?: Congress party's Dr Shama Mohamed shared the video with a caption that said, "₹5 crore was seized from a close aide of an MLA from Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. The BJP and Eknath Shinde ran an unconstitutional government by using money to buy MLAs. Now, with the election announced, they are once again trying to steal Maharashtra’s mandate with money, while the ECI remains silent."
What's the problem with viral claim?: The video could be traced back to at least April 2020, which predates the recent seizure of cash in poll-bound Maharashtra. This is what makes the claim misleading.
What led us to the truth?: We conducted a reverse image search using the help of Google Lens and found the same visuals uploaded on an unverified YouTube channel called 'Unique Multi Advertisement'.
It was posted on 11 September 2021 with a title that said, "indian lot of money #newnotes #bigmoney #shorts #money #viral."
A second round of reverse image search directed us to another older version of the same clip, which was posted on YouTube in April 2020.
These findings clearly indicated that the clip was old and was not recent as was being claimed in the viral post.
It should be noted that we could not independently verify the context of these YouTube videos and whether it showed real or counterfeit notes.
About the seizure of Rs 5 crore cash: As per a report in The Hindu, the Pune police had arrested four people after Rs 5 crore in cash was seized from a vehicle near a toll plaza.
It mentioned that one of the accused called Amol Nalawade is said to be associated with a Shiv Sena MLA named Shahajibapu Patil from Sangola.
The report further said that Patil had denied these allegations and mentioned that the vehicle did not belong to him or his family. He added that he had no idea which party was Nalawade associated with.
Conclusion: Evidently, the video is old and is being falsely linked to the recent seizure of cash in Maharashtra.
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