A video of a police officer chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ using a microphone is doing the rounds on social media. Many users claim that the visuals are from Patna where a policeman raised religious slogans in front of a mosque after the incident of stone pelting on the Ganesh Chaturthi procession.
A Facebook user shared this video and wrote: “वाह क्या वीडियो है मजा आ गया यह दृश्य देखकर ये पटना की वो मस्जिद है जहा अभी दो दिन पहले गणेश चतुर्थी की यात्रा पर पथराव हुआ था देखो ये शेर पुलिस वाला मस्जिद के सामने #जय_श्री_राम के जयकारे लगा रहा है….!!वाह…बहुत खूब.” [English translation: Wow, what a video, I enjoyed watching this scene. This is the mosque in Patna where stones were pelted just two days ago on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Look, this lion policeman who is shouting #Jai_Shri_Ram in front of the mosque….!! Wow very good.]
This Facebook post can be seen here.
It is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim.
FACT CHECK
NewMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be misleading.
Running a Reverse Image Search of the video keyframes, our team found similar footage in a report of Dainik Jagran, dated October 6, 2023. According to the report, the viral incident took place in Hathua, Gopalganj district of Bihar, not in Patna. On October 1, a ‘Mahavir Julus’ religious procession took out in Gopalganj and there was a clash between two groups during the procession. A conflict arose between two communities near a Chiktoli mosque in the Chiktoli area, leading to stone-pelting. The officer seen in the viral video is Anurag Kumar, SDPO of Hathua. After the incident, SDPO Anurag Kumar reached the spot and to calm down the situation, he took the mike and started raising religious slogans. The report mentions that the crowd started gathering after the stone-pelting incident. Seeing the possible danger, he moved ahead raising slogans of Jai Shri Ram, Jai Bajrangbali, etc.
Media outlets like NDTV, and ABP had reported the same. Six people were badly hurt in this clash. After the incident, police forces, including the SDM, and SDPO, had been deployed on the spot.
We also came across a press release issued by Gopalganj police on their official X account, saying there were nearly 20,000 people present in the Akhara who were agitated by the incident. To control the crowd, the SDPO chanted slogans over the microphone and directed the crowd away from the mosque to avoid any communal violence. According to the release, it was inappropriate to raise religious slogans while in police uniform. The incident would be thoroughly investigated.
sdpo हथुआ के द्वारा झंडा जुलूस में किए गए माइकिंग के संबंध में@bihar_police @BiharHomeDept @DigSaran @swarnprabhat516 #haintaiyaarhum pic.twitter.com/2tcj61zhPM
— Gopalganj Police (@GopalganjPolice) October 2, 2023
In another press release, Gopalganj police stated that they had registered cases against 52 individuals and arrested 18 individuals. The situation is under control and peaceful, as per the tweet.
हथुआ थाना अंतर्गत हुई घटनाक्रम और कृत कारवाई से संबंधित अपडेट@bihar_police @BiharHomeDept @DigSaran @swarnprabhat516 #HainTaiyaarHum pic.twitter.com/RjGb4TJhjF
— Gopalganj Police (@GopalganjPolice) October 3, 2023
Thus, it is confirmed that the video from Gopalganj has gone viral with misleading claims.
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