Fact Check: Old Video Of COVID-19 Lockdown In Amravati Going Viral As Recent

Vishvas News (New Delhi): A video related to the recent lockdown in Amravati, Maharashtra is going viral on social media. It is being claimed that the video shows strict police vigilance and charged lathis to the drivers who violated the recent lockdown in Amravati.

Vishvas News investigated and found that the video is not of the recent lockdown, but of the lockdown that was implemented when the first wave of coronavirus started. The old video of the lockdown in Amravati is going viral as of the recent lockdown.

Claim

Vishvas News received the claim for Fact Check on its Fact-Checking WhatsApp chatbot (+9195992 99372). On searching with keywords, we found this claim viral on other social media platforms as well. A Facebook user named Ashish Pare shared this video on February 23, 2021 writing: “24-2-2021 Coronavirus Amravati lockdown”.

The archived version of this post can be viewed by clicking here.

Similarly, a Twitter user named Bhargava Gudiya tweeted this video on February 23, 2021, writing, “New trends of Amravati city. What to do now when the results of the new Lockdown are not understood properly and calmly. Now eat Prasad.” You can see the archived version of this tweet by clicking here.

Investigation

Vishvas News gathered information about the latest situation of Coronavirus in Amravati, Maharashtra. When we searched with the help of important keywords, we found a report published on the website of Hindustan on February 27, 2021. This report states that the lockdown in Amravati has been extended till March 8 due to rising cases of coronavirus. This report can be viewed by clicking here.

We also searched whether the police lathi-charged during the lockdown in Amravati. We did not find any authentic report confirming any recent lathi-charge of the police. On the contrary, we found a video uploaded on March 28, 2020 on a YouTube channel called Nation Next. The video is based on reports of police brutality against those who violated the lockdown in Amravati when the coronavirus started. The video that is going viral is a part of this video.

This proved that the viral video is not related to the recent lockdown in Amravati, but related to the lockdown that took place last year. Vishvas News shared this viral video with Amravati Police PI (Cyber) Seema Datalkar. He confirmed that this video is of the lockdown that took place last year.

Vishvas News scanned the profile of Ashish Pare, the Facebook user who shared the viral claim. We found that the user is based out of Indore, Madhya Pradesh.