An undated selfie video of a man making veiled communal threat in Nizamabad, Telangana, is viral on social media with a false claim that it is from Karauli Rajasthan that has been rocked by communal clashes recently.
The 21-second video shows a man in a red-chequered head scarf counting four police vehicles that pass by. In the video, the man says, "...see, this car, here is a second car...a third car, now watch the fourth car... Okay? This is from our area...in front of Star Hotel...if we do something these people create an uproar...this much fear is enough for you people...understood? Think you have understood."
Karauli in Rajasthan was in a grip of communal violence after stones were reportedly pelted on a procession being taken out by some Hindu organisations from a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood. A report published in India Today on April 6, 2022 stated that the members of the Hindu organisations were taking out a procession on the occasion of 'Nav Samvatsar' or the first day of the Hindu New Year.
The selfie video has gone viral in this context.
The Hindi caption with the video reads as, "Video shows the face of Karauli's 'jihadidoot' who is also openly threatening after committing the crime."
(Original Text in Hindi: वीडियो में चेहरा दिख रहा है,#करोली का जिहादीदूत का जो जुर्म करने के बाद खुलेआम धमकी भी दे रहा है।)
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the video was shot in Nizamabad, Telangana and not Karauli, Rajasthan as claimed. We also noticed that the video is old and uploaded on a Facebook post on May 1, 2020.
Furthermore, we found a tweet by Rajasthan Police dated April 6, 2022. The tweet stated the video is from Nizamabad and requested Hyderabad police to take necessary action.
In the video, the man himself can be heard speaking that he was recording the video in front of 'Star Hotel'. In addition, he also pans his phone to show the name of the hotel's signboard.
Taking a cue, we performed a keyword search on Google and found a similar looking front-faced photo of a hotel on Just Dial website's page.
The comparison between a frame from the video and the picture can be seen below.
The location of the hotel is mentioned as Bodhan Road, Nizamabad in Telengana on Just Dial's website.
We then reached out to the owner of the hotel. Hotel owner Sohail confirmed to us that the video is from Telangana and was recorded in front of his hotel.
"This is an old video. My hotel doesn't exist anymore. I opened my hotel in 2018 and shut it down in 2019," he told BOOM.
BOOM could not independently establish the identity of the man in the video or ascertain when it was recorded. However, our fact check shows it is not related to the communal clashes in Karauli, Rajasthan.
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