Fact-Check: Old video of protest against Agneepath scheme going viral with misleading claim

New Delhi (Vishvas News): Since the tragic Odisha train accident which resulted in the death of 288 people and injured over 1,100, fake and edited videos and photos are insanely going viral on the internet. Apart from this, several posts are doing rounds on the internet giving the tragedy a communal colour. A video is currently circulating on the internet with claims that individuals are damaging train tracks in protest against the Centre. Some users are making this video viral with a communal agenda.

Vishvas News conducted a fact-check on the viral post and determined that the claim is misleading. In reality, the video is a year old and was filmed during a protest against the Agneepath scheme in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

Claim:

The video was originally posted on Facebook by Harendra Prajapati (archive link) on June 6, with the caption, “Look who these people are?? Everything is happening because of politics. The election of 2024 is coming and the anti-Modi people have come to their senses.” Several other users are also sharing this post believing it to be true.

Investigation:

To investigate the authenticity of the video, Vishvas News employed online tools. Firstly, the viral video was run through the Invid tool to extract keyframes. These keyframes were then used in a Google reverse image search, which led to a report from a year ago on Bhaskar.com. The report used the viral video and stated, “There is a lot of opposition to the ‘Agneepath’ scheme of the central government in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. On June 17, there was a lot of uproar near Bharatpur railway station from 9 am to 12 noon. The protestors removed the fish plates of the track. The track locking keys were also damaged. When the railway police tried to chase them away, the angry youth pelted stones at them”. The report can be read here.

Further, searches were conducted to gather more information about this incident. Using relevant keywords in the Google open search, Vishvas News found a news article published on Jagran.com on June 17, 2022. The article reported that protests against the Agneepath scheme had been ongoing for three days in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. A significant number of youth had gathered at the Bharatpur railway station, and clashes with the police ensued, including stone pelting by the protesting youth. Read the report here.

Continuing the investigation, Vishvas News reached out to Deepak Puri, a local journalist based in Bharatpur. The viral video was shared with him, and he confirmed that it is an old video capturing the Agneepath protest. Surendra Gopalia, another local journalist from Bharatpur, also verified that the video is old, explaining that it documented the youth’s protest against recruitment under the Agneepath scheme at that time.

Vishvas News examined the profile of Harendra Prajapati, the Facebook user who initially shared the viral claim. It was discovered that the user is a resident of a particular locality and has affiliations with a specific political party.