Video from Bihar shared as minors 'consuming drugs' in Andhra Pradesh

What is the claim?

A video of four boys has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that it shows children consuming drugs in the open in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The video shows the boys appearing to inhale something from plastic covers, and a voice-over in the background is heard saying in Telugu, “They got our children addicted to marijuana. I have seen it with my eyes in Chandragiri constituency. A mother brought her 10th standard daughter to me and said, ‘See Brother, YSRCP (the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh) leaders got my daughter addicted to marijuana. Please save me and my family.’ Hence, to bring awareness among the youth, we are undertaking a campaign titled ‘Say No To Marijuana, Bro.’” Archived links to the post and similar others can be seen here and here.

Screenshot of the viral social media post. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is not from Andhra Pradesh. 

What did we find?

We found that the voice-over in the viral video was taken from a longer speech of Nara Lokesh, general secretary of Telugu Desam Party (TDP)— the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh. Lokesh had addressed a ‘Yuva Galam’ (Youth Voice) campaign meeting in Singanamala in Anantapuram district on April 7, 2023. The video of Lokesh’s speech at the meeting was uploaded to the YouTube channel ‘Nara Lokesh Official.’ The voice-over heard in the viral clip has been taken from the 00:27 mark to the 01:08 mark of this video.

We ran keyframes from the viral clip through reverse image search which led us to an extended version of the video posted on Instagram by a user named ‘biharilarka.’ The first 22 seconds of the viral clip are the same as the visuals seen from the 00:07 mark in this Instagram video posted on January 7. However, the voice-over in this video is different from what can be heard in the viral clip.

This Instagram video has a person, presumably the cameraperson, alleging in Hindi that the children are consuming drugs. He identifies the location as a parking slot next to Hanuman temple (near Patna Junction) in Patna, Bihar. The longer video also contains a glimpse of the temple. In this video, the boys notice someone taking a video, and one of them tries to hide his face while another makes obscene gestures at the cameraperson.  

A report in News18 Hindi published this Instagram post in an article dated January 9. The report also identified the location outside Patna Junction railway station, the biggest railway station in Patna.

A Hanuman temple and a restaurant named ‘Step Up Cafe & Waiting Lounge’ can also be spotted outside the railway junction in the longer video. We were also able to locate them on Google Maps outside Patna Junction railway station.

The Hanuman temple and the cafe seen in the video are located outside the Patna railway station. (Source: Google Maps/Screenshot)

The extended video also shows advertisements for jobs with some phone numbers written on an electric pole near the spot where the boys are standing in the video. A shop can also be spotted near them. It is to be noted that the advertisements and the name of the shop are all written in Hindi, whereas, the principal language spoken in Andhra Pradesh is Telugu.

The Andhra Pradesh government's fact-checking unit also clarified in a post on X on January 10 that the viral clip is from Bihar and not Andhra Pradesh. 

The verdict

A video from Bihar where a group of minors were allegedly seen consuming drugs has been shared as an incident from Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.