As the second phase of elections began on 26th April, 2024, Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms. The video shows a man destroying a machine during the voting process. During the investigation we found the viral claim to be fake. The video being circulated as recent is old.
Claim:
X user Megh Updates shared the video on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post.
Other users too are sharing the video with the same claim, of the video being recent.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained by uploading the video in the InVid tool.
We found a video news report about the incident uploaded on the YouTube channel of Sakshi TV.
The title of the video uploaded 11 months ago said: Viral Video : Man Breaks EVM Machine | Karnataka Elections | Garam Garam Varthalu @SakshiTVWatch
We also found a report on thehindu.com, the report was uploaded on May 12, 2023.
The report titled, EVM control unit damaged by man suspected to be mentally unsound, said, “The incident mentioned took place at Hootagalli polling booth, under Chamundeshwari Assembly Constituency in Mysore.”
The authorities identified the man as one Shivamurthy, 48. The man was booked under section 84 of the IPC.
We also found a news report on the website, starofmysore.com.
The report mentioned: Later, the damaged ballot control unit was replaced and the voting process went on smoothly. Meanwhile, Vijayanagar Police, who took custody of the man said he was mentally disturbed and was left off after enquiry.
Conclusion: Old video from 2023 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election of a mentally disturbed man damaging EVM passed off as recent from Lok Sabha elections, 2024. Viral claim is false.
