Social media posts claiming activist Trupti Desai was arrested while trying to buy liquor during a nationwide lockdown, are false. BOOM found that the video going viral is from September 2019 when Desai was taken into preventive custody by Pune Police ahead of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's visit to the city.
The 90-second-long video shows policewomen escorting Desai away to a police van. At one point in the video, a few women police personnel take a necklace of empty alcohol bottles from the hands of Desai.
However, the video was revived on social media on Thursday with a bizarre spin.
A caption with the video reads 'Police arrested Trupti Desai while buying liquor during lockdown. She is actually trying to compete with men'.
(Hindi: लॉक डाउन के दौरान तृप्ति देसाई को शराब खरीदते हुवे पुलिस ने पकड़ा...यह तो वास्तव में पुरुषों की बराबरी कर रही है )
Founder of the Pune-based Bhoomata Brigade and Bhoomata foundation, Desai is known for her campaign to allow entry of women at religious places including Shani Shingarpur temple, Haji Ali Dargah, Sabarimala Temple and others. In 2017, Desai had started a campaign for a liquor-free Maharashtra.
The old video clip has gone viral at a time when the country is under a lockdown to prevent the spread of deadly Coronavirus which has killed 58 people in India so far.
Watch the viral clip below and check its archived versions here and here.
The video has been shared widely from several Facebook profiles and Twitter handles.
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Fact Check
BOOM reverse image searched screenshots from the viral video. We found the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel Bharat Satya on September 16 last year.
A Marathi caption with the YouTube video reads 'Trupti Desai was going to welcome the Chief minister with bottles of alcohol. Pune Police arrested her'.
(Marathi: तृप्ती देसाईं मुख्यमंत्र्यांचे दारूच्या बाटल्यांने स्वागत करणार होत्या.पुणे पोलीसांनी घेतले ताब्यात)
The YouTube video's description section mentions in Marathi that 'Trupti Desai had planned to garland the chief minister with a necklace of liquor bottles. Pune police took her in custody from her residence at 12 'O clock and brought her to Shankarnagar police station'.
BOOM also found a news report on The Press Watch with similar headline. However, when we clicked on the link, the page was 'not found'. The news report mentions the incident from September 14.
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We found another report in Marathi daily Lokmat on the same incident.
According to the report, Shankarnagar Police had taken Desai into preventive custody as they had information that the Bhoomata Brigade was planning to welcome the then chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by garlanding him with liquor bottles. Fadnavis was visiting Pune as art of Maha Janadesh Yatra on September 14 last year.
