{"id":58979,"date":"2020-02-18T20:39:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T15:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=58979"},"modified":"2020-02-18T20:39:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T15:09:47","slug":"india-today-and-its-botched-up-exclusive-on-jamia-police-violence-alt-news-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/india-today-and-its-botched-up-exclusive-on-jamia-police-violence-alt-news-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"India Today and its botched up ‘exclusive’ on Jamia police violence – Alt News investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the intervening night of February 15-16, Jamia Coordination Committee released<\/a> a 44-second CCTV footage of police excess inside a reading room in Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university. The footage is from December 15, 2019, when policemen with riot gear brutally thrashed unarmed students with lathis<\/em>. In the course of the fact-check, this footage will be referred to as ‘viral CCTV footage’. It may be noted that a 29-second version of this video was also viral<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n

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Exclusive CCTV Footage of Police Brutality in Old Reading Hall, First floor-M.A\/M.Phill Section on
\n15\/12\/2019
\nShame on you @DelhiPolice<\/a> @ndtvindia<\/a> @ttindia<\/a> @tehseenp<\/a> @RanaAyyub<\/a> @Mdzeeshanayyub<\/a> @ReallySwara<\/a> @ANI<\/a> @CNN<\/a> @ReutersIndia<\/a> @AltNews<\/a> @BBCHindi<\/a> @the_hindu<\/a> @TheQuint<\/a> @BDUTT<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/q2Z9Xq7lxv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jamia Coordination Committee (@Jamia_JCC) February 15, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Around 5:00 PM on February 16, India Today<\/em> broadcast an ‘exclusive’ CCTV footage, claiming that it shows moments before the police brutality in the reading room.\u00a0Anchor Pooja Shali declared this ‘exclusive’ video as “uncut”, “not an edited video” and an “elaborate” clip, as compared to the viral CCTV footage. Shali asked channel correspondent Arvind Ojha: “Please explain us in details, what do we see in the video. Because, the video which was released, shows students, who were sitting and the police starts baton charging on them.”<\/p>\n

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What happened in #Jamia<\/a> on December 15? India Today accesses the #exclusive<\/a> video. @arvindojha<\/a>\u2019s report.
\nLIVE https:\/\/t.co\/4fqxBVUizL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/qrsTsFuDw3<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 India Today (@IndiaToday) February 16, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ojha responded, “See, let me inform you, the 29-second video, which was made viral, is said to be doctored. Our sources are informing so. But on India Today, we are showing you this first on India Today. The footage from the library which is not only authentic but uncut. This CCTV footage is from December 15 when the violence took place in Jamia. In this, [you] can clearly see that there are some students who were studying in the library. But some boys, who were outsiders with muffled faces are slowly entering the library. One after another several boys enter the library and the biggest point – they have stones in their hands.”<\/p>\n

Shali later questioned, “What do we get to know from this. Is it is a video before the lathi-charge or after that? How do these moments come forward?”<\/p>\n

“This CCTV footage is exclusive with India Today. We had asked for this from a senior officer with the SIT. Because we were tracking this case continuously,” responded Ojha.<\/p>\n

Alt News has already debunked the claim that the student highlighted in India Today’s <\/em>broadcast was carrying stones in his hands. He was holding a wallet in one of his hands, and a flat object (possibly a phone) in the other. You can read our detailed report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through its ‘exclusive’ report on the Jamia violence,\u00a0India Today\u00a0<\/em>attempted to show that the video of the students barricading the reading room was the precursor to the police lathi-charge in the viral CCTV footage. Was it?<\/p>\n

Fact-checking India Today’s<\/em> broadcast<\/h4>\n

A comparison of the viral CCTV footage and the\u00a0India Today\u00a0<\/em>video shows glaring differences between the number of students seen in both. A large group of students is distinctly noticeable in the video played by India Today.<\/em> This should have acted as the first clue that this footage cannot be a precursor to the police lathi-charge seen in the viral CCTV footage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alt News has analysed both the videos frame-by-frame and found that they are from two different floors of the M. Phil\/Post Graduate reading room.<\/p>\n

In the course of this article, we will visually investigate the two videos and establish that India Today’s<\/em> claim about the footage provided by the SIT being the precursor to the viral CCTV footage is false.<\/p>\n

Visual analysis<\/h4>\n

With a keyword search on YouTube, we found a video report by The Tribune<\/em><\/a> published on December 20, 2019, post the police violence in Jamia. The channel visited both the floors of the reading room. We reached out to The Tribune\u00a0<\/em>and procured the raw footage used in their report. [It may be noted that the student featured in the broadcast mistakenly says, “January 15”. However, as the video was uploaded on December 20, 2019, he could not have been referring to an event that was yet to occur.]<\/p>\n

In The Tribune <\/em>footage posted below, one can spot the channel correspondent moving towards the first floor and entering the M. Phil\/Post Graduate section.<\/p>\n