Truncated clip of the video that shows Gorakhpur Police asking people not to believe child kidnapping rumours is shared with a false narrative

A video that purportedly shows a Police officer warning people of Gorakhpur to be safe as child kidnapping gangs are moving in the city is being shared widely on Facebook. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.

Claim: Video of Gorakhpur Police officer warning people to be safe as child kidnapping gangs are moving in the city.

Fact: The clip posted is a truncated part of the video that shows Gorakhpur Police asking people not to believe child kidnapping rumours prevalent in the city. So, the claim is FALSE. 

On the video clip posted, a logo ‘Gorakhpur News’ can be seen. With this information, when looked on YouTube, a channel with that name was found to exist. When searched in the channel for the video, a longer video of this 1min 27secs clip was found to be uploaded on August 25, 2019. The full video was of 2min 35secs duration. The clip seen in the post is truncated between the duration 0:21 and 1:47. In the full video, before 0:21 duration, the news reporter says that Gorakhpur SP Kaustubh has clarified that message on the name of Gorakhpur Police warning people to be alert about child kidnapping gangs moving in the city as fake. And, after 1:47 duration, SP says that the news regarding kidnapping gangs moving Gorakhpur is a rumour and no incident of child theft is reported in the city. The video was clipped in a way that it would mislead people about child kidnapping incidents.

As that video clip has gone viral, the ‘Gorakhpur news’ channel has uploaded another video on September 12, 2019 clarifying that their news channel’s August 25, 2019 news video was clipped and shared with a false narrative. In that video, Gorakhpur SP Kaustubh has also said that a video that shows him cautioning people not to believe child kidnapping rumours was truncated and warned the ones who have done it. This can be heard after 2:38 duration in that video.

To conclude, a truncated clip of the video that shows Gorakhpur Police asking people not to believe child kidnapping rumours is shared with a false narrative.

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