A video purporting to show Jai Shri Ram slogans were raised during West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Garden Reach, where 12 people died after an under-construction building collapsed, is altered with a fake audio track.
An illegal building in Garden Reach's Paharpur area collapsed on March 17 resulting in the death of 12. Following the loss of lives, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation formed a seven-member committee to investigate the collapse of the structure. Banerjee visited the spot on March 18 and addressed the bereaved kin.
The video shows Banerjee walking in a narrow lane, as locals stand to greet her as Jai Shri Ram chants are heard in the background. Trinamool Congress leaders including Firad Hakim and Sujit Bose can also be seen accompanying Banerjee in the viral footage.
BOOM found that no such slogans were raised, and a forensic test of the video confirmed the audio track containing religious slogans has been overlaid on to the viral clip.
The video has a text in Bangla that roughly translates to, "Paternal aunty is passing by as Jai Shri Ram chants can be heard." (Original text in Bengali: পিসি যাচ্ছে আর জয় শ্রীরাম, জয় শ্রীরাম বলছে সব)
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search and found the same video uploaded on Facebook with the original audio on March 18, 2024. The user, Minakshi Das Mandal, shared the video with the caption that roughly translates to, "Got a glimpse of Aunt (Mamata Banerjee) in front of my house early morning." (Original caption in Bengali: সকাল সকাল বাড়ির সামনে পিসির দর্শন)
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Upon scanning the comments, we found that Mandal had replied to one of her friends stating that Banerjee had come to her area on March 18, after the building collapse on March 17.
BOOM however could not independently verify if Mondal had shot the video herself.
We then found a news bulletin by ABP Ananda reporting from Garden Reach on March 18. The video report shows Banerjee visiting the building collapse area. Similar visuals of Banerjee being greeted by the local residents of the area can be seen from mark 4:17 to 4:31 minutes. The footage however does not cover anyone raising Jai Shri Ram slogans.
Additionally, the visuals were streamed live via ABP Ananda's official Facebook page on March 18, 2024.
Below is a comparison of the screengrabs from the ABP footage and viral video.
BOOM also reached out to an expert to analyse the video forensically. itisaar.ai, a tool developed by the Image Analysis and Biometric Lab (IAB) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, confirmed that an audio was superimposed on the video.
(Input by Srijit Das)
