Old video of baton charge on Gorakhpur anti-CAA protesters falsely linked to Sambhal violence

New Delhi: A video that recently became widely circulated on social media showed police personnel baton charging a crowd. Users shared the video, linking it to the violence near the Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal.

In its investigation, the PTI Fact Check Desk found the claim to be false since the video dated back to November 2019. At that time, the police had baton-charged people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Gorakhpur.

Sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter), a user said, "Police lathi-charged terrorists in Sambhal. It seems, terrorists must have thought that police do action only in films but here a real-life 'dhobi pachhad' was shown. Now the effect of this 'lathi' of the law will be understood." The same video was shared by some other users with claims of "police brutality".

To check the veracity of the claim, the PTI Fact Check Desk reverse searched the keyframes and found a video report uploaded on the YouTube channel of Live Hindustan on November 20, 2019.

According to the information in the video description, an incident of stone pelting took place at Nakhas Chowk in Gorakhpur to protest against the CAA. Following the incident, the local police fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters and also baton-charged the mob.

The report related to this incident was prominently shown in the media.

Several other similarities can be noticed between the viral video and the video shown in the news report, which make it clear that it is not related to the recent violence in Sambhal.

For confirmation, the PTI Fact Check Desk searched the place mentioned in the media report with the help of Google Street View, which confirmed that the place seen in the viral video was Nakhas Chowk in Gorakhpur.

Violence broke out during a court-ordered survey of the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal on November 24. A large group of people gathered near the mosque and started shouting slogans as the survey team began work. They then clashed with security personnel, torched vehicles and pelted stones.

According to official figures, four people died in the violence, which also left around two dozen others, including security personnel and administration officials, injured.

The PTI Fact Check Desk's investigation makes it clear that the viral video is from the anti-CAA protest in Gorakhpur and has no connection with the violence in Sambhal. The claim going viral on social media is false.