A video of Uttar Pradesh police assaulting women surfaced on social media in the backdrop of violent protests in Noida over salary hike last week.
The disturbing visuals show several police personnel armed with batons approaching a busy intersection of a street and pushing women away. The camera then pans to a different location, where a cop slaps a woman and moments later, multiple policemen start thrashing and kicking her and finally pinning her down.
The video has been shared by Uttar Pradesh Congress and Lok Sabha MP Chandrashekhar Azad on their social media handles calling out UP police.
Soon after, the Police Commissionerate of Gautam Buddh Nagar denied that the visuals are from Noida and speculated that it was AI-generated or morphed in replies.
In a ground report BOOM however found that the video is from Sector 6, in Noida where there was a clash between policemen and protesters on April 13. Locals from the area corroborated the same and told BOOM that the video is from the afternoon of April 13 when police assaulted the women seen in the video.
Thirteen FIRs have been registered in Noida and 65 have been arrested so far after violent protests over salary hike broke out in Noida on April 13. STF officials confirmed to BOOM that the alleged mastermind of the violence, Aditya Anand was arrested from Tamil Nadu on April 18.
Video Appears To Be Morphed Or AI Generated: Gautam Buddh Nagar Police
Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissionerate initially replied to several X posts on April 16, including UP Congress and Chandrashekhar Azad claiming that the video is morphed or AI generated and is not from Noida. The handle also stated that a gazetted officer has been appointed to 'enquire into the facts pertaining to the video.' Archived replies from the Commissionerate's handle can be seen here, here, here and here.
What we found:
1. Geolocating the area: BOOM first found a clearer version of the video where a board of Simplex Packaging Limited can be seen on a white building. A keyframe also has a road intersection, where a brick red shade can be seen - this implies that the video was shot from the building with the same shade. In the opposite direction, there is a blue and white coloured building with two window AC units. Taking the above cues, we were able to geolocate the video and found that it is from Block A and Block B in Sector 6, Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
We then visited the location and found the building in front of Simplex Packaging Ltd is a textile factory Kohinoor Enterprises. The blue and white coloured building on the other side of the road is Namah Enterprises. Comparisons can be seen below.
2. Eyewitness accounts: In a conversation with BOOM several locals in and around the area confirmed the authenticity of the video and stated that it is from the afternoon of April 13. A female sanitation worker told BOOM on the condition anonymity, "It must have been around 2.30 pm when the inspector and other constables approached from the Sector 6 police outpost and ran towards the women standing on the other side of the road. I saw a sub-inspector raise his hand on the woman (in white) and when she protested, they abused her."
An eyewitness, who was standing on the other side of the road during the incident, saw the viral video and told BOOM, "This video is from April 13 lunchtime. We were all standing outside and at that moment, I saw an inspector and some policemen come from the side of the intersection and brutally beat up a woman (in Pink). We were then asked to leave the place."
BOOM also spoke to multiple shopkeepers present nearby about the viral video, all of whom dismissed the police claim that the video is morphed and said that it is a real incident.
3. Protesters seen in PTI photo: BOOM found an image of the same protest taken by PTI in which the assault on the women can be seen. The photograph was taken outside the Motherson factory located a few meters away from the intersection.
We reached out to Sector 6 police outpost in-charge Shailendra Kumar, who said he did not see the video and thus could not comment on it. BOOM also did not receive any comment from Laxmi Singh, Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissioner, on the video till the time of writing this fact check.
4. Video Is AI Generated? Multiple detection tools described the video and audio as authentic, ruling out any tampering. Additionally, we reached out to our partners at Deepfakes Analysis Unit and they found the video to be authentic.
