Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
A video spanning over 2 minutes, showing a group of rioters throwing stones and instigating violence while the police are seen aiding them, is going viral on social media. Users are linking it to the Jahangirpuri violence, suggesting it to be proof of collusion between police and the rioters.
The video shows men in civil clothes standing close to policemen in riot gear, picking up stones from the ground and flinging it towards a neighbourhood off the camera frame, while the cops can be seen firing in the same direction. The police are also seen shielding the rioters at times, who are later seen advancing into the neighbourhood in tow with the police.
The video has been shared on Twitter by user @URScrewed_ which has garnered 3,65,200 views along with 14,400 likes and 7,713 retweets on the platform. The video is shared along with the caption ‘This is how state sponsored riots are scripted in India.’
Newschecker found similar claims on Twitter with similar captions.
Fact Check/ Verification
Newschecker conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video to ascertain its authenticity and found that a tweet from 2020 as the video had been viral in 2020 claiming it to be Delhi police helping Hindu rioters in Shaheen Bagh.
Upon further investigation, Newschecker found an original version of the video, without the red circle highlighting the rioters, tweeted by Times Of India journalist Arvind Chauhan on January 1, 2020.
According to the tweet, the video is from CAA protests in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Newschecker also found an article published by the Times of India on 1st January, 2020 written by the same journalist titled ‘CAA protests: Uttar Pradesh video shows civilians throwing stones at protesters from the police side.’
According to the article “Days after a senior police official of Agra range in UP claimed that no bullet was fired during the anti-CAA protest in Firozabad on December 20, at least four videos have emerged in which police are not only shown purportedly firing at the protesting mob, but are also helped by unidentified civilians, who are seen throwing stones from their side.”
Upon conducting a keyword search, Newschecker found that violence was reported in Firozabad on 20th December, 2019 by several media outlets which can be seen here and here.
Conclusion
According to the investigation conducted by Newschecker, an old video from an anti-CAA protest from Firozabad that took place in 2019 is being shared as recent.
Result: False Context/Missing Context
Our Sources
Tweet by Arvind Chauhan
News report by Times of India
Media reports by Aaj Tak and IndiaTV
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
