A video of security personnel arresting people and pushing them into a vehicle is circulating with a misleading claim that it shows Indian Army deployment in Malda, West Bengal, ahead of the assembly elections.
BOOM found that the video is from Bangladesh and shows the Bangladeshi Army detaining three individuals during the general elections held earlier this year.
West Bengal’s Malda has recently witnessed major protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), along with incidents of violence against judicial officials on SIR duty. The Supreme Court directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the probe. The developments have triggered a sharp political face-off between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the polls later this month.
The Claim
Several verified handles on X shared the video with the caption, "Indian armed forces takes over from West Bengal Police now. Now in Malda, No Appeasement, just pure Action in Army style". (sic)
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What We Found: Video Is From Bangladesh
1. Video Shows Scenes From Bangladesh: On closely reviewing the footage, two signboards can be seen with Bengali text reading “Manik Nagar Model High School” and “Mugda Thana Swechhasevak Dal.” A Google search for “Mugda Thana” in Bengali indicates that the location is in Bangladesh.
2. Incident from elections in Bangladesh: Taking a cue from the details above, we ran a keyword search on YouTube and found that a local Bangladeshi channel had uploaded the video on February 12, 2026. The caption stated that the footage shows three people being arrested at Manik Nagar High School in the Dhaka-9 constituency.
Bangladesh held its general election on February 12 this year, following the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the formation of an interim government led by economist Muhammad Yunus over a period of around two years.
In the report, we also observed the emblem of the Bangladesh Armed Forces’ 14th Independent Engineers Brigade on the uniforms of the security personnel, along with a shield bearing the words “Bangladesh Army.”
