An old video of a polling agent illegally casting votes for two women has resurfaced with a false claim that the incident is recent and happened during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
BOOM found that the video is at least five years old and unrelated to the current polls. The video has been circulating on the internet since May, 2019.
In the 28 seconds long video, a woman can be seen entering into the area where electronic voting machines are kept. Another woman, who appears to be a polling agent, is also observed at the kiosk where only voters are allowed. The woman then directs the voter to press the EVM button and repeats the process with the next voter.
The video is being shared with a Hindi caption that translates to, "This is how 400 will be crossed".
(Original Text in Hindi: ऐसे होगा 400 पार)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
In 2021, BOOM published a fact-check debunking the same video when it went viral as an incident from the West Bengal assembly elections.
We then ran a keyword search on the internet using the keywords 'Booth Capturing' and came across a report published on May 16, 2019, by NewsCentral 24*7. The report featured a screenshot from the video that is now being shared as a recent incident.
The report was not able to specify the precise location of the incident shown in the video. However, the article hinted that the incident might have occurred somewhere in rural Bengal.
An excerpt from the report states, "The exact source of the video and the place where this took place have not been ascertained yet. However, it has been suggested that it is from rural Bengal".
We also noticed that several X users in 2019 shared the video mentioning it to be an incident happened in rural Bengal.
Click here to view one such post and here for an archive.
Vinod Sharma, the political editor of Hindustan Times, had also shared the same video on May 15, 2019. He captioned the video as, "Another achievement Election Commission. Shocking to say the least."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
BOOM was unable to confirm additional details about the incident. However, we were able to verify that the video is at least five years old, and it is not from the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
