Lighthouse Journalism found a video being shared widely on social media platforms, claiming that it shows BJP workers caught stealing Electronic Voting Machines. During the investigation, we found that the claim is misleading. In Nagpur, Congress workers attacked a car transporting EVMs after polling, mistaking them for people stealing machines.
Claim:
X user Navya Verma shared the video with a misleading claim on her profile.
Other users too are sharing the same video, with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on the screenshots from the video.
We first noticed the car number, MH 19 BU 6027. The vehicle is registered in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon.
We then ran a reverse image search and a keyword search, which led us to a video on NDTV India’s X handle. The video that was shared showed the same vehicle number as the car featured in the video.
The caption stated: In Nagpur, some people pelted stones on the car of a zonal officer. Due to this the car of the zonal officer was badly damaged. There was an EVM machine in his car and people misunderstood that this was the same EVM that was used in voting for the elections, whereas this was an extra EVM placed in his car.
We also found a video on the ABPLIVE YouTube channel.
The description mentioned: Violence took place in Maharashtra after the voting ended, zonal officer was attacked in Nagpur’s Killa vicinity by unknown people
We also ran a keyword search and found some news reports about the incident.
Reports mentioned: Tensions flared in Nagpur during the Maharashtra Assembly elections as Congress workers attacked a vehicle carrying an EVM. The police clarified the EVM was a standby unit and not used for polling. Heated arguments between BJP and Congress leaders followed the incident.
Conclusion: The video of vandalism of a car after Congress workers attacked a vehicle carrying a spare EVM which was a standby unit not used for polling, is being shared with false claims. The viral claim is misleading.
