A 2020 video clip of police thrashing COVID-19 lockdown violators in Amravati, Maharashtra has surfaced on social media with claims that it is a recent incident after Maharashtra imposed lockdown on few districts
Maharashtra state government has recently imposed lockdown restrictions in Amravati district. Restrictions have also been imposed in Nagpur, Buldhana and Yavatmal. The new lockdown rules state that people will be able to step out to buy essential commodities between 8am and 3pm and a restriction on religious, political and social gatherings.
The viral clip shows several visuals of police personnel thrashing people amidst curfew restrictions and violating COVID-19 rules.
A caption viral with the video reads, "With the new lockdown, new trends have started coming from Amravati, Maharashtra, langar offerings have started." (Original text in Hindi: "महाराष्ट्र के अमरावती से नए लॉक डाउन के साथ नए रुझान आना शुरू हो गए हैं, महा प्रसाद लंगर शुरू हो गया है,,, सोच समझ कर बाहर निकलें। कोई बहाना नहीं चलेगा,,,,।।") A text within the video reads in Marathi "Mahaprasad started in Amravati."
Archive of the post can be seen here.
Another video caption reads, ''Langar starts in Amravati'' (Original text in Hindi: ''अमरावती मे लंगर शुरु हो गया है'')
Archive of the post can be seen here.
It is also being circulated on Twitter with a caption, "New trends of Amravati city, results of new dons in Maharashtra" (Original text in Hindi: "अमरावती शहर के नए रुझान नए लोक डॉन के परिणाम ,महाराष्ट्र,")
Archive can be seen here.
Also read: Uttar Pradesh Police Rubbish Claims Of Month-Long Mask Checking Drive
Fact Check
BOOM broke the video into its key frames and ran a reverse image search on one of its frames, and found the same video on Twitter from March 2020 when lockdown restrictions were imposed across the country.
Taking cue from this, we did a relevant keyword search on YouTube and found that several channels had uploaded the same video in March 2020. A video by a YouTube channel, Indian Railway Traveler- AK posted the same video on March 24, 2020 with the title, "Lock down /Curfew in Rajkamal Chowk, Amravati | Police beating people 1 by 1 [SABKO PARSAD MILENGA]"
Further, we noticed a board of one 'Assam tea centre' in the viral video and we geo-located it on Google Maps. The shop is located on Rajkamal Chowk in Amravati district. We searched for images of the street outside the tea shop and found the same street on JustDial's page .
A comparison of the screengrab from the viral video and the street view in JustDial can be seen below.
We could ascertain that the viral video was taken during lockdown restrictions in Amravati in 2020 and not amidst the recent lockdown rules imposed by the state of Maharashtra.
Also read: Fake Graphic Claims Maharashtra Imposes Total Lockdown From March 1
