CLAIM
A video of a two-wheeler falling into a huge pothole has been going viral on social media since 8 July. The video shows one man trying to pull out a two-wheeler from the pothole, which has completely swallowed the vehicle, during torrential rainfall.
Three other men then join him and help him pull out the completely submerged scooter.
The video clip was shared widely by people who claimed that it was from the Chembur area in Maharashtra and criticised the Mumbai civic authorities in charge, as well as the central government.
The video was also widely shared on Facebook.
Several media outlets also shared the clip, repeating the claim that it was from Chembur. An outlet called Newsroom Post ran the clip as part of its package on Mumbai rains.
ScoopWhoop also carried an article about it, saying it was from Chembur.
Mumbai Mirror uploaded the video with the title: “Did a pothole swallow a two-wheeler in Chembur?” However, they published a disclaimer with it saying, “Mirror cannot independently verify the authenticity of this video.”
NDTV India also did a report on the video clip, writing about how people on Twitter were criticising the state of affairs.
TRUE OR FALSE?
While the video is real and not morphed in any way, it is not of Chembur. The Brihanmumbai Corporation’s Twitter handle clarified that the video was not of a Chembur pothole and asked people “to please verify facts before circulating such content, which could lead to unnecessary panic.”
Moreover, a Pune-based journalist Abhijit Deshmukh, who had first posted the video on 2 July, said that it was taken in Jalna, Maharashtra and not in Mumbai.
He also replied on Twitter to many others who claimed that the video were from Chembur, even specifying the exact location where the video was taken.
After repeated claims of the video being from Chembur, Deshmukh uploaded another video on Twitter, showing the same spot without the waterlogging and rain. He also stressed, once again, that the spot was near SB high school in Jalna and not Chembur.
News outlets like Scroll.in and India Today, who had published reports about the video, updated their stories after the clarification from BMC.
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