Fact Check: Old video of people damaging train tracks being shared without context

Hyderabad: After the tragic train accident in Odisha’s Balasore last week, which claimed at least 288 lives, social media is flooded with videos with misleading claims and conspiracy theories.

A video of many young men damaging railway tracks is going viral on social media. Those sharing it have not given any context regarding the date and location of the video.

A Facebook user shared it and made a vague claim that with the 2024 Lok Sabha election approaching, ‘anti-Modi’ people are conspiring the train accidents. He also termed Opposition parties as Islamic parties and supporters of these conspiracies.

Many Facebook users have shared the video claiming the same. (Click here, here and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video dates back to 2022 and shows youths protesting against the Aginpath scheme of the Central government.

On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found it tweeted by a user on June 19 2022 with the hashtag #AgnipathScheme.

Taking this cue, we ran a keyword search and found this video in a report published by Dainik Bhaskar a year ago. The report said on June 17, 2022, angry youths protesting against the Agnipath scheme of the Central government damaged the locking keys and tried to remove the railway tracks in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

The protestor had also pelted stones when chased by the railway police.

Hence, we conclude that a year-old video of the Agnipath protest is being shared without full context to mislead the people.