A video showing a flag-march by the Ajmer Police in Rajasthan to raise awareness about the coronavirus is being shared with a false claim that the police force had visited the Ajmer Sharif Dargah to pay their respects.
BOOM contacted Superintendent of Police Amer, a city close to Ajmer, who told as that the Dargah has not been opened for the public yet, and what the video shows is a flag-march by the police department to create awareness about the deadly virus.
The 30-second-long clip shows uniformed policemen marching in two files holding banners and placards. The video has been overlaid with a bollywood song. Since the video has been shot from a higher vantage point, the text on the banners and placards is hard to read.
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A Hindi caption with the clip translates to 'The day Ajmer SHarif Dargah reopened, senior officials of Rajasthan police paid obeisance at the Dargah and offered prayers to get rid of the Coronavirus'.
(Original caption: Ajmer Sharif Dargah khulte hee Sabse Pahle Rajhstan Police ke Aala Adhikariyo Ne HAZRAT KHAWAJA GARIB NAWAZ ki BARGAH MeIN Salam Arz Kar Haziri Di Aur Corona Virus Se Nizaat Paane Ke Liye DUA Mangi. HAZRAT KHAWAJA GARIB NAWAZ)
Watch the video below and check its archived version here.
BOOM also received the same message on its helpline with a request to fact check the clip.
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Fact Check
BOOM checked the Twitter handle of Ajmer Police and found that several such videos had been tweeted from their timeline with captions suggesting that these clips are from awareness rallies about Coronavirus conducted by the Rajasthan Police.
कोरोना से जागरूकता के लिए एक प्रयास🙏🙏🙏🙏#Covid_19 #जागरूकता_अभियान#जागरूक_अजमेर#अजमेर_पुलिस#RajasthanPolice@PoliceRajasthan@PoliceRajasthan pic.twitter.com/DDNXZYA07V
— Ajmer Police (@AjmerpoliceR) June 30, 2020
However, as the tweets were not shared from a verified Twitter handle, we decided to contact Rajasthan police for more information.
BOOM contacted Amer Superintendent of Police Kunwar Rastradeep who confirmed that the video showed a 4-km-long Corona Awareness flag-march conducted by the department on June 29. "The Dargah has not opened yet and neither have the officials visited the Dargah for any offerings," the SP told BOOM.
"Can you see any chadar for offering. Police is holding banners to aware the public regarding corona. Dargah area is one of the most affected areas by corona. This is clip of flag march conducted by Ajmer police for an awareness campaign (sic)," he further added.
The SP also told BOOM that similar flag-marches are being conducted all over the state to create awareness against the deadly virus.
BOOM also contacted the Ajmer Sharif Dargah but our calls went unanswered.