All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won the recently-concluded assembly elections on May 2. The results revealed AITC won 213 seats while the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 77 seats. Post-poll violence was reported from the state as rival political parties clashed, burning party office and looting homes. At least 14 people have died since the results were declared. While the civil society and opposition parties have blamed TMC for “victory violence”, the party has denied perpetrating the same. However, as with the case of any event, misinformation has been used on social media to add fuel to fire.

Twitter user @AdityaT009 posted a video of a mob attacking a cop and a police jeep. He used the hashtags #नींद_से_जागो_अमित_शाह_जी (Wake Up Amit Shah), #PresidentRuleInBengal, and #BengalViolence to share the video and blamed TMC for the attack.

Facebook page DEFENCE360 with over 30,000 followers posted this video on May 4.

 

#Breaking

SOS call by Amartya Sinha ji who is covering #BengalBurning from ground (Link : https://www.facebook.com/amartya.sinha.1989/posts/10218250094835107)

“I have a small request for all my nationalist friends, Hindutva activists, RSS/ BJP workers and right-wing thinktanks who are currently residing in West Bengal.

Plz remove ur contact numbers from ur social media profiles and go underground for at least a few weeks. A fellow journalist who is covering the West Bengal elections told me that TMC’s digital teams are already trying to track down many of ur social media profiles, ur IP addresses and ur location details, so that Mamata’s goons can come down to ur residences and destroy everything. They have already made an initial list of around 30 profiles which may be targeted soon. Plz be careful and keep ur eyes and ears open.”

Even WB Police is not spared…All are getting attacked by TMC Goons & illegal bangladeshis

TMC has successfully changed demographics of West bengal & this is nothing but the benefits of changing demographics

Idea is to do mass exodus of Hindus

Posted by DEFENCE360 on Tuesday, 4 May 2021

Aaj Tak journalist Kamlesh Singh, Twitter account Know The Nation and Twitter user @ard_007  had posted the video and later took it down.

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Old video from Odisha

Kalinga TV reported that the incident in the viral video took place in Odisha’s Bhadrak district at Alinagar Square under Tihidi police jurisdiction on January 13, 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsVvT3_fSA4

The footage in the Kalinga TV broadcast at the 23-second mark matches the viral video. The identical elements are 1) Pink entrance, 2) Brown roof and 3) Police van.

This incident was also reported by The New Indian Express (TNIE) and Prameya News. “A 22-year-old youth’s fear of police ended in his death in a village of Tihidi block in Bhadrak district on Wednesday. Irked, locals set afire the police vehicle at Alinagar Chowk within Tihidi police limits in the district. Sensing trouble at the sight of police who visited his home to interrogate his brother-in-law, the victim, Bapi Mahalik, started running. Even police, due to mistaken identity, chased Bapi till he took a plunge into a pond and got into heavy algae and drowned,” reported TNIE.

A vehicle of Pirahat police station, unaware of the protests, was passing by and was attacked by locals who assumed that it was Tihidi police.

Kamlesh Singh and Know The Nation acknowledged that the video is old and deleted their erroneous tweets.

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An old video of a police vehicle attacked in Odisha after the death of a youth has been falsely shared as post-poll violence in West Bengal.

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About the Author

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