A video of an officer commenting on the price of dress and shoes of a man is going viral on social media. In the video, he can be heard saying: “White-collar man in the car is worth ₹25 lakh” and then goes on to ask the cost of his shoes and watch. Many users claim that the District Magistrate (DM) of Ballia said: “How can a person who drives a car worth ₹3 lakh and wears shoes worth ₹10,000 be a Dalit?”
A Facebook user has shared this video with a description: “Ballia DM Thakur Saheb rightly said… wearing shoes worth ₹10,000 and coming in a car worth ₹30 lakh. Don’t try to play the Dalit Backward Exploited card!”
This Facebook post can be seen here.
It is being widely shared on Facebook and X with a similar claim.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be false.
Running the keyframes of the video through Reverse Image Search, our team found the same video shared by several Facebook users in 2019 with similar claims.
Another video report by AajTak, dated August 30, 2019, has also carried similar footage. According to the report, the video is related to Rampur Primary School located in Ballia district. Dalit students there were made to sit separately from the upper caste children and served food on banana leaves.
According to the NDTV report, dated September 2019, the IAS officer later issued a public apology on September 2. “I apologise from the bottom of my heart, with folded hands and my head bowed,” he said.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral video is 4 years old and Ballia DM Bhavani Singh Khangarot has also apologised for the statement.
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