Lighthouse Journalism came across a video being shared widely on social media platforms. In the video police were seen beating a man wearing a skull cap with lathi at the beginning and later another man, users claimed that the video was from Uttar Pradesh. During the investigation we found that the video was from 2020 and police beat up individuals not following Covid-19 lockdown guidelines. Viral claim is misleading.
Claim:
X user Frontalforce shared the video.
Other users too are sharing the video on the profiles.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video. This led us to a video uploaded on daily motion, four years ago.
Description stated that the police were taking strict action against those not following the lockdown during the Covid pandemic.
The video at the end shows a police station at Izatnagar, Janpad, Bareilly, clarifying that the video is from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.
We found similar visuals as shown in viral video, in video news reports uploaded by YouTube channel of News State four years ago.
The description of the video said: UP: рдХреЛрд░реЛрдирд╛ рд╡рд╛рдпрд░рд╕ рд▓реЙрдХрдбрд╛рдЙрди рдХреЗ рджреМрд░рд╛рди рднреАрдбрд╝ рдмрдиреА рд╣рд┐рдВрд╕рдХ, рдмрд░реЗрд▓реА рдореЗрдВ рдкреБрд▓рд┐рд╕ рдкрд░ рд╣рд┐рдВрд╕рдХ рд╣рдорд▓рд╛, рджреЗрдЦреЗрдВ рдкреВрд░рд╛ рд╡реАрдбрд┐рдпреЛ.
Translation: Crowd turns violent, attacks police during Covid lockdown in Bareilly .
There were several news reports about the same.
We also found a post by Bareilly police on the same on X in 2020.
Conclusion: 2020 video of Bareilly of police beating those flouting Covid guidelines is being shared as recent from Uttar Pradesh. Viral claim is misleading.
