A video of a mock drill conducted in Patan, Gujarat is viral with false claims that police personnel arrested terrorists from the shopping complex.
BOOM spoke to Patan police who confirmed that the exercise was a regular mock drill which was conducted on July 30, 2021, at City point complex in Patan, Gujarat.
In the 14 seconds video, we can spot a group of policemen escort two people whose hands are tied with ropes and their faces covered as they are being arrested.
BOOM received the video on our WhatsApp helpline number (7700906111) by asking about it.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM did a keyword search and found a report published on a Gujarati news site Divya Bhaskar with a screenshot from the same video.
The report states that a mock drill was conducted by Patan Police at City Point complex on July 30, 2021, in the afternoon. The report further states that the drill was aimed at demonstrating the precautions and check the vigilance of Patan police in case of a terrorist attack.
We also found a news report by Gujarat Samachar which stated that the police mock drill was about nabbing two suspects hiding in the basement of City Point.
Taking a cue from the report, BOOM contacted Police Sub Inspector Vijay Chaudhary who confirmed to us that the viral video actually showed a mock drill.
"The video going around is from a regular mock drill that the Patan Police conducts every year. It was conducted on July 30, 2021, in the afternoon at City Point," said PSI Chaudhary.
We also compared shots from the viral video with photos of City point on Google maps where we can spot the same architecture and same shops.
On comparing with photos in the Divya Bhaskar news report, with shots from the viral video, we found that the group of policemen and mock suspects also match.
We also found a local Gujarati news report on the mock drill uploaded by PTN News on YouTube.