Conspiracy to damage rail tracks? Old video of ‘Agnipath’ protesters falsely viral after Odisha tragedy

A video of a group of men tampering with and uprooting the ‘rail clip’ and ‘fish plate’ on a train track was recently viral on social media. The clip is being circulated in connection with the recent train accident in Balasore, Odisha. It is being dubbed as part of a conspiracy against the ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2024 general elections.

A user named Munna Yadav tweeted this video and wrote, “Look who these people are. All this is happening because of politics. The 2024 election is coming and the anti-Modi camp has come to its senses.” (Archived link)

देखिए ये कौन लोग हैं। सब कुछ पॉलिटिक्स की वजह से हो रहा है।

2024 का चुनाव जो आ रहा है और मोदी विरोधी लोग अपनी औकात पर आ गए हैं🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/3hIMgGQ7IU

— 🎼Munna💫Yadav🎼 (@MY961) June 7, 2023

A user named Dilip Kumar Singh also tweeted this video with the same claim. (Archived link)

It is also widespread on Facebook with this claim.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the viral video and found a tweet dated June 21, 2022 by a user named Sriprakash Rao. The user tweeted the video using the hashtag ‘#AgnipathScheme’ and wrote, “Are these boys aspirants for defence services recruitment? How can we rely on them for safety of our borders? They should be booked for attempted manslaughter & treason.” (Archived link)

Are these boys aspirants for defence services recruitment? How can we rely on them for safety of our borders? They should be booked for attempted manslaughter & treason #AgnipathScheme pic.twitter.com/RLvUZ5bclP

— Sriprakash Rao Talpady ಶ್ರೀಪ್ರಕಾಶ ರಾವ್ ತಲಪಾಡಿ (@TalpadySR) June 21, 2022

Based on this information, we performed another search using keywords related to the Agnipath scheme and protests. We found an article by Dainik Bhaskar dated June 20, 2022, in which the description of the same video was given as follows: ‘An attempt was made to uproot the railway track in protest against ‘Agnipath’, with trains remaining closed for 3 hours on the Jaipur-Agra route along with stone pelting by protesters too.’

We also came across a video report by Dainik Bhaskar which shows part of the viral video.

It is worth noting that in June 2022, there were massive protests seen across the country against the Agnipath scheme, in which angry protesters damaged government property at several places.

Overall, social media users shared an old video of protesters damaging train tracks in protest against the Agnipath project, falsely linking it to the recent train accident in Balasore, Odisha. They also falsely alleged it was a part of a conspiracy against the Modi government.