Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
A video showing two men in police uniform ‘raiding’ what appears to be a basement, where three young couples can be seen in intimate positions in separate cabins, is going viral on social media platforms. Those who shared the video claim that it shows visuals of a police raid at a “hookah bar in Madhya Pradesh” where “Muslims boys were caught with Hindu girls”. Newschecker found the claim to be false. Neither is the video from Madhya Pradesh, nor does the incident have any communal angle to it.
Several Facebook users shared the video claiming that “all the boys (seen in the video) are Muslims and all the girls are Hindus, not a single Muslim girl.”
Links to such posts can be found here, here and here.
Also Read: Viral Video Of Woman Being Stabbed In Murshidabad Falsely Linked To ‘Love Jihad’
Fact Check/Verification
Newschecker conducted Google reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video along with keywords in Hindi such as “कैफे”, “हुक्का बार,” “पुलिस”, & “छापा” “युवक युवती” which led us to a report by Dainik Bhaskar with the title that roughly translates to “3 policemen suspended for making objectionable video of youths: On July 27, a raid was conducted in the restaurant of Sanjay Place, after 14 days the video went viral.” Featuring screenshots from the viral video, the report elaborated on how a police raid on a restaurant under Hariparwat police station area concluded in the suspension of three constables involved in the same, after the video went viral.
The report stated that the Head Constable of Hariparwat police station Ranjeet, along with two other constables raided a cafe in Sanjay Place on August 27. Two of them barged into the cafe’s basement, where they found some young couples in intimate positions while the third filmed the entire raid. As the video reached social media platforms, several fingers were pointed at the police and questions were raised on the investigation. Following this, Agra SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary suspended the three constables involved in the raid.
We then conducted a keyword search for “हरीपर्वत पुलिस कैफे” on Google which yielded several reports on the incident. Corroborating with the Dainik Bhaskar report, an article by Jagran further stated that SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary suspended the trio- three policemen involved in the raid- on the basis of the preliminary investigation report by Hariparwat ASP Satya Narayan. The report further added that the departmental inquiry in the incident is underway.
You can read more reports on the said incident here, here, and here.
Notably, none of the reports indicate any communal angle to the incident.
We could thus conclude that the viral video is actually from a cafe in Agra and not from Madhya Pradesh, as claimed widely.
Further to verify the veracity of the allegations of “Love Jihad”, we reached out to Hariparwat SHO Arvind Kumar who clarified that the incident had no communal angle. The SHO said, “There is no such communal angle. All of them belonged to the same religion and were adults.”
Conclusion
Viral posts falsely claiming that Muslims boys and Hindu girls were caught in objectionable conditions in Madhya Pradesh was found to be false. The video is actually from UP’s Agra and has no communal angle.
Result: False
Sources
Report By Dainik Bhaskar, Dated August 10, 2022
Report By Jagran, Dated August 11, 2022
Telephonic Conversation With Hariparwat SHO On August 31, 2022
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
