After the Delhi car blast, a video (here, here, here and here) is viral on social media showing heavily armed police officers detaining two individuals on a street. It is being circulated with the claim that two terrorists were arrested at the Kamdhenu Building in Lokhandwala, Mumbai. Let’s verify the truth behind this video.
Claim: The video shows terrorists being arrested at Kamdhenu Building in Lokhandwala, Mumbai.
Fact: The video is from a mock drill conducted by the Mumbai Police at Kamdhenu Shopping Mall in Lokhandwala, Andheri West. Oshiwara Police confirmed the drill, and no real terror-related incident matching the claim occurred. Hence the claim is FALSE.
To verify the truth, we closely listened to the viral video. It appears to be a random recording, and the people behind the camera can be heard casually talking in Hindi. Their conversation suggests that the scene is not real. They say (translated from Hindi), ‘this is not a real arrest; the police are just demonstrating how an arrest is done, and the arrested individuals are also from the police team’. This indicates that the video is likely from a mock drill.
Then we conducted a reverse image search using a screenshot from the viral video, which led us to multiple news reports (here, here and here). These outlets confirmed that the visuals show a mock drill. They also reported that the Oshiwara Police clarified that the video was part of a mock exercise conducted by the Mumbai Police to demonstrate their response in the event of a terrorist attack in the city.
To verify whether it was indeed a mock drill, we contacted the Oshiwara Police. They confirmed that the incident was a mock drill conducted at Kamdhenu Shopping Mall in the Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri West, Mumbai. Following the Delhi car blast, several cities conducted mock drills (here, here and here), and such exercises are common in Mumbai as part of routine police preparedness. We also reviewed for any real incidents matching the viral claim in Mumbai, but found no such reports. This confirms that the viral video has no connection to any terror-related activity.
To sum up, a video of a Mumbai Police mock drill is falsely shared as footage of terrorists being arrested in Mumbai.
