Video From Protest In Bengal Falsely Linked To Bengaluru

A video from a massive protest in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal held in July 2020 is being shared on social media with false claims linking it to Bengaluru, Karnataka.

BOOM found that the video shows protesters blocking the National Highway 31 near North Dinajpur district. A huge crowd had turned up on the highway protesting the alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl in Chopra area of the district.

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The video is viral with false claims in the backdrop of recent riots that broke out in Bengaluru earlier this month.

On the evening of August 11, an angry mob had attempted to burn down two police stations in the DJ Halli area of Bengaluru, in the course setting aflame several vehicles. The mob was demanding the arrest of T Naveen Kumar (34), the nephew of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, for allegedly posting a derogatory and offensive image about Prophet Mohammed on Facebook.

Read Bangalore Riots: A Timeline Of How The Violence Unfolded

Viral posts can be seen below and its archived version is available here.

Note: The clip shows violence, discretion advised.

Fact Check

While the Bengaluru mob violence had taken place through the evening of August 11 leading late in to the night, the viral video shows daytime hours. Taking cue from this, BOOM did a reverse image search on one of the key frames of the video.

We found the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel on July 23, 2020. A Bangla caption with the video translated to 'Protest against gang rape of 16-year-old Rajbangshi girl and demanding severe punishment for the culprits. NTK Bangla (Sic)'.

(Bangla: ১৬ বছরের রাজবংশী কিশোরীকে গণধর্ষণের প্রতিবাদে এবং দোষীদের কঠোর শাস্তির দাবিতে বিক্ষোভ. NTK Bangla)

We did a search with relevant keywords and found several news reports reporting on the incident.

BOOM also found that the same video had been tweeted by wire agency ANI on July 19.

In a clip of the incident published by Hindustan Times (same as the ANI video) and NDTV, we could see the same visuals as that in the viral video.

An NDTV report on the incident can be seen below.

BOOM also compared some frames of the viral video with the ones published by Hindustan Times.

According to the Hindustan Times report the incident had taken place in Chopra, North Dinajpur on July 19.

"Chopra in North Dinajpur district in north Bengal turned into a battleground on Sunday afternoon, hours after a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered. But police said the post mortem revealed that she died of poisoning," says the Hindustan Times report.

The report also stated that locals had resorted to vandalism and torched three government buses and two police vehicles.

According to an Indian Express report published on July 20, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had alleged that the deceased was the sister of a local party leader and was raped and murdered by a Trinamool Congress leader. The ruling TMC had denied all such allegations.  

Read more about the case here and here.

The official Twitter handle of the West Bengal police had also tweeted the details regarding the case.

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The case had taken an interesting turn when the body of a boy was found the next day after the girl's death in Chopra.

According to a Times of India article, the boy's post mortem report indicated that he had died of poisoning, the same reason cited in the girl's report. The article mentions that they were in an alleged relationship.