A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) claims to show Uttar Pradesh Police thrashing devotees who came for a holy dip at the 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.

Claim: Video shows Uttar Pradesh Police thrashing devotees who came for a holy dip at the 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela.
Fact: The viral video is from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, showing police using lathi charge to disperse a mob demanding the handover of Akash Kumar, arrested for the murder of Ravi Kumar Ray. The incident occurred on 01 January 2025 outside Bank More police station, where the protest escalated as residents set tyres on fire, blocking traffic. The incident predates the 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, which began on 13 January 2025, and it has no connection to the event. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we did a reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video which led us to the News article (archived) published by The Jharkhand story featuring the screenshot of the same viral video. According to this report on 01 January 2025, a mob gathered outside Bank More police station in Dhanbad, blocking the main road and demanding the handover of Akash Kumar, who was arrested for the murder of Ravi Kumar Ray. The protest escalated as residents set tyres on fire, disrupting traffic on key routes. Police initially tried to control the situation but resorted to a mild lathi charge when protesters blocked the station gate. However, Inspector Lov Kumar denied using force, stating the mob was only cleared to ensure police movement. The accused is being interrogated, with a personal dispute suspected as the motive.

We found several similarities between the viral video and news reports. The comparison is shown below.

We also found multiple other news reports (here, here, and here) (archived here, here, and here) covering this incident.
To sum up, a viral video from Dhanbad, Jharkhand showing a lathi charge on people demanding the handover of a murder accused from 01 January 2025 is falsely shared as related to the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh which began on 13 January 2025.