Lighthouse Journalism came across a video being widely shared on social media platforms where policemen were seen lathi charging the crowd. Upon investigation the video was found to be from Maharashtra and not from Haldwani, in Uttarakhand.
Claim:
Facebook page SADA News Network posted the viral video on their profile.
Check the archive version of the page.
Other users too are sharing this video on various platforms.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by uploading the video on the InVid tool. We ran a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the InVid tool.
We found one particular frame during the search. This frame was from a reel shared on Facebook. Though the reel did not open, we were able to spot the text written on the video. It said, ‘Mumbai police open fire at midnight Ghatkopar’.
Using the InVid tools, ‘magnifier’ on the keyframes obtained, we found that the registration plates of the vehicles in the video started with ‘MH’, which belong to Maharashtra and not Uttarakhand.
We found a news report in Marathi stating that the tension prevailed in Ghatkopar after the arrest of Maulana Mufti Salman Azhari.
We found a news report on the Mirror Now YouTube channel. Some keyframes obtained matched the video.
The video stated, Maulana Mufti Salman Azhari Arrested for ‘Hate Speech’ | Protest Outside Police Station’.
We found a video too on Twitter claiming this video to be from Ghatkopar.
We found a better, clear video on the Facebook page of Press Time. The video was uploaded on 8th February, 2024.
We also found a few videos of the violence on the X profile of Mid Day and also some news reports about the same.
Conclusion: Viral video of police lathi charge claimed to be from Haldwani, Uttarakhand is actually from Ghatkopar, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
