Fact Check: UP police charge at anti-BJP protestors? No, it’s old video from Hyderabad
A video showing police personnel charging at youths and detaining them is going viral with the claim that it shows Uttar Pradesh police action against protestors from the Muslim community.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:UP police take prompt action against protestors making slogans against RSS and the BJP.
Fact:The claim is false. The video shows Hyderabad police detaining youths from the Zohra colony in Hyderabad’s Shalibanda area in 2022.
Hyderabad: A video showing police personnel beating some youth and dragging them is going viral on social media. Those sharing the video claim the incident took place in Uttar Pradesh.
The video was shared on X as ‘prompt action by the Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath against protestors who made slogans opposing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’.
Using derogatory language to refer to people from the Muslim community, the X user wrote that a rally was held at 12 noon where ‘Cut down RSS–BJP’ slogans were made, following which the Yogi government beat them up at 7 pm. (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows Hyderabad police detaining youths from the Zohra colony in Hyderabad’s Shalibanda area in 2022.
Is the video from UP?
Upon a reverse image of the video’s keyframe, we found it in an X post, shared by Hyderabad-based journalist, Yunus Lasania, on August 24, 2022.
He stated in the post that Hyderabad police arrested protestors from their homes during protests against then-suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh, who had passed derogatory remarks on the Prophet Mohammad.
A report by The Siasat Daily from August 25, 2022, carried a screengrab with visuals similar to the viral video.
As per the report, Hyderabad police forcefully entered homes and arrested numerous Muslim youths in and around the Shalibanda area. The protest was against Singh, who had made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammad. The report also mentioned that Singh received bail the same day after being arrested on August 23, 2022, which enraged the protestors.
Geolocation
Further, on closely examining the video, we noticed a board with the text ‘SHAFFAF’ at the beginning of the video.
Using keywords, we found that it is a shop supplying packaged drinking water in Hyderabad. Further, we found the exact location of the board on Google Maps. It is in Banaja Galli 2 in Shalibanda, Hyderabad.
Here are the screenshots from the viral video and Google Street View showing the board of the shop ‘SHAFFAF’.
It is clear that the video does not show action by the UP government against protestors who made slogans against the RSS and the BJP.
Earlier, NewsMeter had debunked the same video when it went viral with a different claim.
Therefore, the claim is false.
