Congress leader and former MP from Mumbai south constituency Milind Deora tweeted a video of commuters rushing into a bus, disregarding social distancing norms. He claimed that the video is from Mumbai and tagged the public body BEST. He later took down his tweet but an archived version can be accessed here.

The same video has been shared by several other users.

The clip has been uploaded with a caption in Urdu as well. It has also found its way on YouTube and Facebook.

Also viral as Delhi

The same clip has also been shared as Delhi. A Twitter user wrote, “See this video Arvind Kejriwal. This is the condition of Delhi’s DTC bus. (ये एक वीडियो देख लो @ArvindKejriwal साहब की दिल्ली की फ्लीट यानी कि DTC बस का हाल !!”)

It is also doing the rounds on Facebook.

 

🚌 बस का हाल 🤦🏻‍♂️
दिल्ली में मामले यू ही नहीं बढ़ रहे🤨😟

Posted by गगरेट हलचल on Tuesday, 9 June 2020

Fact-check

In the background, the conductor of the bus can be heard saying in Bengali, “আসতে আসতে আসতে উঠোন আসতে উঠোন (Slowly, slowly, slowly, get up slowly).” This is the first hint that the video is not from Maharashtra where Marathi would be used on a local bus. In fact, everyone in the background can only be heard conversing in Bengali.

Twitter handle @nv3sh was one of the earliest to tweet the video. “See the situation of Kolkata’s bus on 8th June 2020 for yourself. Video by a friend. 2/2,” he wrote.

Speaking with Alt News, Anvesh (@nv3sh), informed that he does not know who shot the video. However, he had tweeted another video of the same bus before people started to pour in. Commuters can be seen banging on the door of the bus, eager to get in. At 17 seconds in the clip, one can hear the conductor say, “টিটাগড় অব্দি যাবে, থানায় গাড়ি ঢুকিয়ে দেব (The bus will go till Titagarh, will take it to the police station.)” Titagarh is a city in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. It is close to the state capital Kolkata.

A video of people rushing into a bus in West Bengal was therefore shared with the false claim that it is from Mumbai.

[Update: The same video shared as Delhi has been added to this fact-check.]

About the Author

Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.