Fact Check: Old video from Sri Lanka going viral with misleading communal claims on Kerala
The viral CCTV footage of an assault is from Sri Lanka and has nothing to do with Kerala. This video, which is more than two years old, is being shared with false claims and being given communal colour.
- By Vishvas News
- Updated: May 24, 2023
New Delhi (Vishvas News): A CCTV footage, originally from Sri Lanka, is going viral on social media with misleading claims linking it to Kerala. In the video clip, a person wearing a cap is seen attacking another person with a rod. The onlookers rush to take a look at the victim, one of them snatches the rod from the assailants hands and throws it aside. The victim is then taken away in an autorickshaw while the assailant walks away nonchalantly. This video has been shared on social media with the claim that the incident took place in Kerala. Viral posts have alleged that Muslims kill Hindus in this way and give it the form of an accident in Kerala.
Vishvas News’ investigation found that the CCTV footage was from Sri Lanka and had nothing to do with Kerala. The claims made in the viral posts are false and the video is being shared by giving it a communal colour.
Claim:
Vishvas News received a request to fact check this video on its tipline number +919599299372.
Along with the video, the caption says, “This is how jihadis kill Hindus and give the incident the form of an accident in Kerala. If there was no CCTV, then there would be no evidence against it.”
Twitter user Munna Yadav (archived link) and Facebook user Mrityunjay Kumar (archived link) also posted the same video with this claim.
Investigation
To verify the viral CCTV footage, we first went through the video carefully and found that it wasn’t a recent video. The clip was dated February 22, 2021.
Next, the keyframes of the video were extracted and searched using Yandex reverse image. This video was uploaded on tgstate.com on September 26, 2022. The caption was written in Russian. After translating it, it was found that this video was from Sri Lanka.
On searching further, we found the viral video shared by a Twitter user, Upendra Pathak, (archived link) on May 16, 2023. Here too, the video was said to be from Sri Lanka. However, this user too gave it a communal color while falsely claiming that the incident was from around the year 2020.
A Facebook user, named Accident Prevention First, uploaded the viral video on February 26, 2021. The user said the video was from Kandy, Galaha area.
According to the Sri Lanka Unlocked YouTube channel, Galaha is in Sri Lanka. It is located in the Kandy district and is located in the Central Province.
For more information, we contacted senior Sri Lankan journalist AP Mathan and shared the viral video with him. He said, “This video is from Sri Lanka only. It is almost two years old. The person who attacked was mentally weak. The victim was taken to the hospital. There was no communal angle to it.”
We scanned the profile of Twitter user Munna Yadav who made the video viral with the false claim. The location of the user has been given as Uttar Pradesh. This account, created in April 2021, has more than 17,000 followers. The user appears to be influenced by an ideology.
Conclusion: The viral CCTV footage of an assault is from Sri Lanka and has nothing to do with Kerala. This video, which is more than two years old, is being shared with false claims and being given communal colour.