In light of the recent clashes between police and protesters in Kanpur, a social media post accompanying a video showing a group of police men thrashing people is being widely shared attributing the video to the recent police lathi charge in Kanpur. Through this article let’s fact-check veracity of the video shared in the post.
Claim: Visuals of recent police lathi charge in Kanpur.
Fact: It is true that Kanpur police had resorted to lathi charge to control the protesters who were protesting over remarks of Nupur Sharma on Prophet Mohammad in a television show. However, the viral visuals are not related to the recent lathi charge in Kanpur. These visuals are actually related to anti-CAA protests in Gorakhpur, back in December 2019. News agencies have reported these visuals back then. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Muslims in Kanpur protested over former BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s remarks allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammad on a television show. As the protests led to stone pelting, police had to resort to lathi charge to control the protests. Multiple news agencies have reported the visuals (here & here).
However, visuals shared in the post have nothing to do with the recent police lathi charge in Kanpur. Reverse image search of the viral visuals led us to 2019 Facebook post which shared the same visuals. This post claims that the visuals are from Gorakhpur.
Taking a cue from this Facebook post, further search yielded us a December 2019 news video that carried similar visuals. As per this report, the visuals show police lathi charge against CAA protesters in Gorakhpur.
In December 2019, protests against NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act took place in many parts of Uttar Pradesh. Multiple incidents of police resorting to lathi charge to clear these protests have taken place (here & here) then. Another news report also carried visuals similar to the one shared in the post, in its report related to anti-CAA protests in different parts of UP.
Thus, the above mentioned evidence clearly establishes the fact that the viral visuals are not related to the recent police lathi charge in Kanpur.
To sum it up, old visuals related to anti-CAA protests in Gorakhpur are being shared as recent, linking them to Kanpur.
