Old video from Surat shared as cop taking money from migrants walking home on rail tracks

A video of a policeman collecting money from a group of women walking on railway tracks carrying luggage is viral on social media. It is being claimed that the cop was demanding money from migrants walking to their native places in Gujarat. Twitter user Vipin Saraswat posted the video with the claim, “In Gujarat model, migrants are being asked to pay a bribe to walk on the railway tracks. What kind of Gujarat model is this? (translated)”. The tweet has garnered more than 700 retweets so far. In the video, the policemen can be heard asking for ₹100 while quarrelling with the women.

गुजरात मॉडल में रेल की पटरी पर पैदल चलने वाले मजदूरों से हफ्ता वसूल हो रही है
ये कैसा गुजरात मॉडल – ? – 🤔🤔🤔#गुजरात_रेलवे_पुलिस #गुजरात_मॉडल pic.twitter.com/Nc8u7ttfD9

— Vipin Saraswat (@VIPs1973) May 10, 2020

Facebook page of the CPI-ML’s student wing All India Students’Association (AISA) also posted the video with the same caption, “गुजरात मॉडल में रेल की पटरी पर पैदल चलने वाले मजदूरों से हफ्ता वसूल हो रही है ये कैसा गुजरात मॉडल ?”. At the time of writing of the article, the post was shared more than 500 times. Many other people on Twitter and Facebook shared the video with the same narrative.

Alt News has also received several requests on its official Android application to fact-check this video.

Fact-check

With the help of digital verification tool InVid, Alt News broke the video into multiple keyframes. We then performed a reverse search on one of the keyframes and found a tweet posted on July 17, 2019.

Piyushji Railway police taking bribe @PiyushGoyalOffc @narendramodi @AmitShah pic.twitter.com/rkKUCZNmzi

— Ramesh Dugar (@ramesh_dugar) July 17, 2019

A Google search with relevant keywords led us to a video report from July 2019 by ABP Asmita. A further keyword search led us to a report by Gujarati website Desh Gujarat. “A Railway Police Force (RPF) jawan whose video taking bribe from Liquor trafficker women on railway tracks was viral has been sacked from the service,” reads the report.

According to an article in Ahmedabad Mirror, RPF constable Jaikant was dismissed after a video which was reportedly shot on Western Railway’s Surat section went viral on social media. “While the constable tries to convince them that the cop was a GRP man and not one from his team, the women grudgingly collect money to pay the RPF constable, telling the cop that they’ll be back in a couple of days.” said the report published on July 18, 2019.

An old video of an RPF constable taking bribes from women traffickers of liquor in Surat was shared with the false claim that a policeman in Gujarat demanded money from migrants walking home on railway tracks.