A video of an argument between a traffic police officer and a scooter rider over the sticker of a Hindu deity on the vehicle is viral online with the false claim that the incident is from Kolkata. BOOM found that the claims were false and the video is from Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
The video shows the traffic police officer asking the rider to remove the deity's sticker, which the latter refuses to do. The driver then says that the officer can fine him if he wants, but that he would not remove the sticker. The officer agrees to this and begins fining the driver.
BOOM Hindi had previously debunked this claim in early September when it went viral as a video from Rajasthan. Read here.
The video is now being circulated with the caption, "KOLKATA TRAFFIC POLICE MAKES CHALLAN IF YOU PUT HINDU GOD'S NAME ON SCOOTER."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from Lakhimpur, Uttar Pradesh, and not Kolkata.
A reverse image search of some key frames from the video on Google led us to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from August 31, 2023 that carried the same video. The caption suggested that the video was from Uttar Pradesh and read, "Uttar Pradesh police is worried about stickers,but in India, while filling any government form, religion and caste certificates are asked, so why is the administration showing off unnecessarily?"
(Original text in Hindi: "स्टिकर लगाने से उत्तर पुलिस को तकलीफ है,लेकिन भारत में कोई सरकारी फॉर्म भरते समय धर्म और जाति प्रमाण पत्र मांगा जाता है,तो ये फालतू का दिखावा प्रशासन क्यू कर रहा हैं।")
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
After this, we compared the logo on the police officer's uniform to that of Kolkata police and found that it matched the Uttar Pradesh police logo.
In the video, the rider says that the sticker of Hindu deity "Khatu Shyam" was put on his vehicle. Taking a cue from this, we ran a search for the incident on Facebook using Hindu keywords such as Khatu Shyam, challan (fine), and vehicle. This led us to a post by Mayank Shukan Awasthi on August 26, 2023 who seemingly shot the original video and was fined for the sticker on his vehicle.
His post read, "What kind of order is this in Lakhimpur that if Om, Khatu Shyam is pasted on the car, we will fine the car. They took a photo of the car but I did not remove the sticker🙏 Remove the name of SP, DM, CO, MLA, MP, District President, Divisional President first (from their vehicle) and then talk to the common man. I have put this sticker of God with my own hands and I will not remove it. You keep on fining me, I will keep paying in the name of Mahadev."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Awasthi also shared the picture of an RTO Notice from August 23 that specified how the stickers denoting caste and community were prohibited on vehicles.
We looked at other posts from Awasthi's account and found that he had posted a picture with the police officer, Dinesh Singh on September 3 and shared how they had met and resolved their argument. His post reads, "Today, Dinesh Singh of traffic police came to meet at his residence. Good person probably made a mistake in understanding the order of governance and I believe that mistakes are always done by individuals. Maybe there will be no one in the society who has not committed any mistakes, I have also done many times. All of you are requested to give the same respect to Mr. Dinesh Singh as he used to give before. He is also our own brother🚩🚩 Hail Hinduism 🙏🚩Jai Hindu Jagran Manch🙏🚩."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Media reports from August stated how UP CM Yogi Adityanath had issued orders for a crackdown against vehicles that carried stickers denoting caste or religion on them. Action was taken against these vehicles since they were in violation of the Motor Vehicle Act of 1988. The Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad police, between August 11 and 20, issued 2,300 challans against vehicles bearing stickers of Jat, Gurjar, Brahmin, Yadav, and 786, among other religion and caste-depicting signages.