Lighthouse Journalism found a video that is being widely shared on social media platforms. It was claimed, along with the video, that candidates appearing for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination were found cheating.
During the investigation, we found the video and the claim to be misleading. This old video is from a college examination and not the UPSC exam centre.
Claim:
X user Mohammad Almas shared the video with a misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing this video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video. Reverse image search on one particular keyframe led us to a news report published by Zee News in 2024.
The report stated that the students were caught copying in the Uttar Pradesh LLB examination. The video was said to be from Barabanki.
We found another news report on bhaskar.com uploaded a year ago.
The report stated that a student caught the cheating incident on Facebook Live, which led to the cancellation of the examination. Following this, City Law College was fined Rs 2 lakh and banned from conducting any exams for six years.
We also found a video report about the incident on the YouTube channel of News24, which showcased the video going viral.
Conclusion: An old video of students cheating at the Law examination in Barabanki is being shared as recent from the UPSC exam centre. The viral claim is misleading.
