Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati Maharaj is in Prayagraj for the ongoing Mahakumbh. It was after the stampede that he appealed to devotees to take a holy dip anywhere in the Kumbh Kshetra, saying there was no specific place for it, and urged the devotees to stay patient.
Amidst the ongoing Mahakumbh, a video of Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand is being widely shared with claims that he was lathi-charged in Prayagraj by the UP police.
During the investigation, we found that it was an old video that was being shared with false claims.
Claim:
X user Ritesh Singh shared the viral video.
Other users too are sharing the video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by doing a Google keyword search.
This led us to the same video on First India News, where police were seen charging lathis on seers. The video also featured Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati Maharaj.
The video titled: Lathi charge on saints in Varanasi by police was uploaded nine years ago.
The description said: The conflict started on the issue of immersion of Ganesha Idol in the Ganga river. People threw stones at the police. At the crossroads between the panicked chaos. Over 15 people were injured in the baton charge. The police and the PAC initially warned people to evacuate intersections. People started shouting slogans in protest. Police arrested around 25 people from the spot.
We also found reports from 2021 of Akhilesh Yadav apologising to Shankaracharya for lathi charge on seers.
We found several video reports of this incident.
In 2015, police in Varanasi had lathi-charged protesters demanding the immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh in Ganga. In the lathi-charge Swami Avimukteshwaranand and several other religious leaders were injured. Swami Avimukteshwaranand was also arrested and sent to jail.
Conclusion: A video from 2015 from Varanasi of lathi-charge on Swami Avimukteshwaranand and several other religious leaders is being shared as recent from Mahakumbh in Prayagraj. The viral claim is false.
