A 2008 video from Goa showing a scuffle between devotees of the Hare Rama Hare Krishna sect and cops is being peddled with false captions claiming that the incident shows post-poll violence in West Bengal.
BOOM found that the video is from 2008 and the incident shows a scuffle between Russian devotees and Goa police.
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Reports of post-poll violence started pouring in ever since Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won the election on May 2. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had appealed for peace and announced a compensation package for the deceased and the Ministry of Home Affairs had sent a team to the state to look into the matter of post-violence violence.
The viral clip shows a group of saffron-clad devotees clashing with policemen. A caption with the video reads 'Have a look at this incident from West Bengal. This is today's *secular* West Bengal. When devotees of ISKCON were distributing Bhagavad-gita and other spiritual literature, people from the *most peaceful* islam religion started beating them. When the devotees resisted the police were sent by *Mamata Didi* who is converting West Bengal into an Islamic state. Hats off to the brave devotees of Krishna who put their japa mala aside and stared hitting them back. Brave people may forward this to all Hindus. Others may continue to be *sickular*'.
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BOOM received the same video on its helpline number for fact verification.
Fact Check
BOOM watched the video closely and at one point we saw Goa Police written on the police van in the background.
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Based on this, we did a keyword search with relevant words and found a tweet from 2018 sharing the same video.
The tweet reads 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna Russian saffron hippies confront wth Goa police outside Mapusa Market North Goa today mng'.
We also found an image which shows a cop and a devotee from the same video.
Cop seen in the viral video
The link shared with the picture is that of Herald Goa. However, the link does not return the complete story. We found a truncated report dated November 26, 2008.
BOOM searched the internet with keywords used in the Herald Goa article and found a Reddit thread from February 2013 sharing the same video with a headline 'Russian Hare Krishna vs indian police'.
One of the replies on the thread shares a report detailing the case.
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According to the report, the incident took place when Russian members of Hare Ram Hare Krishna group clashed with Goa police near Mapusa police station in 2008. Eight Russians were arrested in connection with the clash.
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