Two old and unrelated videos have gone viral on social media with a message falsely linking them to Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The videos have been spliced together and shared with a caption in Hindi which reads 'Hindu brother prevented another Shaheen Bagh from coming up. Hail Modi'.
(Hindi: हिन्दू भाइयों ने बचाया एक और शाहीन बाग बनने से हर हर मोदी घर घर मोदी)
Watch the viral post below and access its archived version here.
The five-minute-long clip is a set of two videos which shows different individuals chanting Jai Shri Ram. BOOM found out that both the videos were old and were shot at different places.
While the first video shows a group of men chanting Jai Shri Ram as Muslim devotees offer namaaz in the background, the second video shows some men chanting religious slogans even as policemen try to pacify them.
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Screenshot of the viral post
Shaheen Bagh, an arterial road in Delhi, has become a sit-in protest site for anti-CAA protesters since December 15, 2019. The protests have been led primarily by Muslim women. Numerous fake narratives around Shaheen Bagh has plagued social media for months now.
Also read Fake Messages Claim Shaheen Bagh Protester Tested Positive For Coronavirus
Fact Check
BOOM ran reverse image search on screenshots from the viral clip and traced the first video to 2018. However we could not find anything useful on the second video through reverse image search and so we took help of keyword searches to trace it.
First Video
The video shows a group of men chanting Jai Shri Ram while Muslims men offer namaaz in the background. The men chanting slogans can be heard telling the devotees to 'go and recite namaaz in the mosques or their homes'.
The incident is from Gurugram, Harayana. The video had gone viral when a group of around half-a-dozen men had disrupted namaaz being offered on an open plot in Sector 53 of Gurugram.
Gurugram police had arrested six persons on April 26 in connection with the incident. Read more about the incident here.
Report published in The Hindu dated April 27, 2018
Below is a screenshot from the viral clip that shows the same person whose photo has been shared in The Hindu's report above.
Another video uploaded on YouTube claims shows a longer version of the same clip. The description with the video uploaded on April 23, 2018, reads 'Hindu Outfit Stops Muslims from praying on Road Stops Namaz Gurgaon'.
BOOM also tried contacting the Gurugram police to learn the proceedings in the case and the article will be updated once we hear back from them.
Second Video
BOOM traced the second video to 2015.
The video shows a group of men with saffron scarves chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans while policemen try to pacify them. At one point a scuffle breaks out and the cops carry the protesters away in a police van. BOOM found a couple of videos uploaded on YouTube with a different caption sharing the same clip.
Description with the video says 'Shiv Sena Hindu terrorists beaten up by Indian Punjab police'. However, we did not get more information on this video from reverse image search.
If one listens to the video carefully, the protester can be heard saying, 'Jammu Me Valentine Day Nahi Manega. Mandiro Ke Shehar Me Valentine Nahi Manega.' (We will not let people celebrate Valentine's Day in Jammu. No Valentine's Day in the city of temples).
Also, at one point in the video, the camera focuses on a vehicle on which the words Rehari Ambphalla is written. BOOM found that Rheari Road is located in Ambphalla of Jammu.
We searched Facebook with a combination of keywords which included Valentine's Day, police, Shiv Sena, Jammu and found the same video that had been uploaded by Kundan Srivastava on July 20, 2015. Even this post claims the incident was a protest against Valentine's Day. However, it does not mention the whereabouts of the protest.
BOOM tried to contact Jammu police to get more information on the incident, and the report will be updated once we get a response.
