India TV Fact Check: A video is going viral on social media, claiming that it is from Chhattisgarh and showing police brutality, including lathi charge against the tribal community demonstrating to save the Hasdeo Aranya forests. The video also alleges that the police are assaulting women. However, upon fact-checking the video, it was found that it is not from Chhattisgarh but from Karnataka.
What is going viral?
A user named X (@iamAKstalin) shared this video on January 5, 2024. The caption with this video reads, "As long as Bhupesh was in Chhattisgarh, there was trust; today, without Bhupesh, it's Adani's government, and women are being beaten."
In this 33-second video, it is seen that a significant number of people are gathered in a forest area, and the police are also present. During the attempt to control the crowd, a female police officer is seen engaging in physical confrontation, and a protesting woman falls during the incident.
India TV did fact check
We first extracted some keyframes of this video and did a reverse search on Google. During this time we got a news from Public TV which was published on 5 December 2023. The headline of this news is- "Was Dasara jumbo Arjuna injured in firing by forest staff? Mahout’s statement gives rise to suspicion".
The article mentions, "Amid heavy opposition from locals and mahouts, the Forest Department performed the last rites of the elephant Arjuna in the KFD Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary near Yediyala, Sakaleshpura, with full state honors. The police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd as some leaders of organizations demanded taking Arjuna's body to Mysuru and attempted to disrupt the final rituals. This led to some chaos for a while."
In the same news article, scrolling down, we found the image that was also present in the viral video. Here, the same woman and policewoman were seen confronting each other, confirming that the viral video is related to this incident. Subsequently, by using keywords, we searched for this news on Google, and the video related to this incident was found.
This video was also uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Public TV on December 5, 2023. Its title is "Police had to lathi-charge at the cremation site of elephant Arjuna in Sakleshpur | Public TV."
What came out in the investigation?
It is clear that the viral video is related to a protest in Karnataka after the death of an elephant, not a lathi-charge on tribal communities in Chhattisgarh.
