A video (here, here, here, and here) circulating on social media claims that Swami Avimukteshwarananda was subjected to a lathi charge recently, during the Maha Kumbh 2025. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Video of police officers charging Swami Avimukteshwaranand with lathis (batons).
Fact: The video is from 2015 and was recorded during a police crackdown on a protest led by Swami Avimukteshwaranand against the UP government’s decision to prohibit Ganesh idol immersion in the Ganga, Varanasi. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a keyword search on the internet to check if any media outlets had reported a recent lathi charge on Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand. This search did not yield any credible news reports. However, we found reports (here and here) from September 2015 about a lathi charge by police on Swami Avimukteshwaranand and a few other protesters in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
At the time, Swami Avimukteshwaranand, along with several saints and locals, was protesting against the administration’s decision to prohibit the immersion of a Ganesh idol in the Ganga river following an Allahabad High Court ruling banning idol immersion in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. According to a report by India Today, “Various saints also joined the protesters on Tuesday to press for their demands, following which senior administrative and police officers made several futile attempts to disperse the crowd. However, the protesters, led by Swami Avimukteshwarananda, once again attempted to march towards Dasashwamedh Ghat at around 2 AM on Wednesday, prompting the police to resort to a lathi charge.”
During this lathi charge, Swami Avimukteshwaranand and 30 others were reportedly injured. Further searches led us to video reports from 2015 documenting this incident.
These reports contained visuals from different angles (here, here, and here) that were seen in the viral video. In these news reports, Swami Avimukteshwaranand can be seen standing in the same posture with his arms open, just as in the viral video, while saying, “Mariye… mariye.”
Additionally, we also found the exact video from which the viral clip was taken. It was uploaded on YouTube by Wild Films India, a stock footage platform, in January 2016. The moments seen in the viral video can be found at the 4:32 mark of this footage.
To sum up, a 2015 video of a lathi charge on Swami Avimukteshwaranand is being falsely shared as recent.
