Twitter user @sdtiwari posted a video of a man speaking against CAA, NRC and politicians including Home Minister Amit Shah to a media person. @sdtiwari claimed that the man is ‘Shakeel Ahmed Ansari’, a teacher at DPS Rajbagh in Gujarat’s Valsad. This video gained over 10,000 views.

Twitter user @saffronncloud also posted this video. It gained over 100 retweets.

Multiple Facebook and Twitter users have posted this video.

VIDEO NEITHER FROM GUJARAT NOR THE MAN IS A TEACHER AT DPS

Before we begin the fact-check, it’s worth noting that in 2019 Alt News debunked three false claims about DPS School Rajbagh.

In this report, we will answer the following questions:

  1. What’s the location of DPS Rajbagh?
  2. Where was the video shot and who is the man giving the bite?

DPS Rajbagh is located in J&K

A keyword search on Google reveals that the said school is not in Gujarat as claimed on social media but in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua city.

Details of the video

Alt News performed a reverse image search and found that the video dates back to at least December 13, 2019. A higher resolution version of the video was uploaded by a YouTube account named ‘irfanbagwan GFC‘. This video has the watermark of ‘LTV Exclusive’ which led us to the channel’s Facebook page. The video was uploaded on December 12, 2019. It has gained over 12 million views since then.

नागरिकता बिल पास होने पर फुटा लोगों का गुस्सा, इस बन्दे ने जो कहा सभी को सुनना चाहिए

नागरिकता बिल पास होने पर फुटा लोगों का गुस्सा, इस बन्दे ने जो कहा सभी को सुनना चाहिए

Posted by सच सबसे आगे on Wednesday, 11 December 2019

In the backdrop, the Banaras Hindu University’s iconic entrance can be spotted. Thus the video was shot in Varanasi. The image below is a street view of the gate.

A comparison of the gateway seen in the LTV video and Google street view is added below. The three palm trees in front of the entrance wall and the tomb in both images are the identifiers.

We reached out to a source at BHU and they identified the man and shared his Facebook profile. The man’s identity is concealed in an attempt to prevent online harassment. However, we can reveal that he is a political science researcher and human rights activist. Over a telephonic call, he told Alt News, “Yes, this my interview from Banaras during anti-CAA protests at BHU’s main gate in December 2019. I would like to share what I said was in context to the political scenario and circulating it now without context isn’t appropriate.”

To sum it up, a 2019 video of an activist’s interview with The LTV News during an anti-CAA protest in Banaras was shared with the false claim that the man in the video is Shakeel Ahmed Ansari, a teacher at DPS Rajbagh in Gujarat’s Valsad.

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About the Author

🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.