Old video peddled as police thrashing Shiva devotees in West Bengal recently

Context

A video showing police personnel beating up a group of people is being shared on social media with claims insinuating that the police in West Bengal, under the leadership of chief minister Mamta Banerjee, thrashed 'Kanwariyas'— devotees of Lord Shiva who participate in a holy pilgrimage called the 'Kanwar Yatra.' The 51-second video shows police officials in white uniforms dispersing a crowd with batons. A few people in the crowd are wearing saffron clothes, similar to what some Hindu devotees adorn in religious gatherings.

A Twitter user shared the video with a caption with a communal undertone. The caption read, "Mamata Bano's police lathi-charged the Kanwariyas in Bengal. I feel that Mamata is running another country while living in India." Text inlaid in the video read, "Love showered by police on Kanwariyas in Bengal as per the orders of Mamata government." An archived version of the post can be found here.

However, an old is being shared to misleadingly claim that the police beat up devotees in West Bengal during this year's Kanwar Yatra.

In Fact

A reverse image search revealed that the video dates back to 2021. According to a Hindi report published by news organization Tv9 Bharatvarsh on August 16, 2021, the video was captured in Kolkata in front of a temple. The report, which carried the video and several screengrabs from it, said that the video showed police officials baton-charging Shiva devotees who had gathered outside the Bhutnath temple, which was still closed. Several BJP leaders had shared this video in 2021, criticizing West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for the alleged police action. 

Sharing the same video,Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar reported that the devotees were beaten up because they violated the COVID-19 restrictions by gathering outside the temple to offer their prayers. The 2021 report stated that the Bhunath temple in Bengal's capital Kolkata was yet to be opened for devotees even as temples in other states had started welcoming visitors after the second coronavirus wave. Hindi news outlet Dainik Jagran relayed the same information on August 16, 2021.

Upon reviewing the viral video, we spotted a poster in the background at the 16-second mark. The poster was written in Bengali and read, “Save Ahiritola Ghat Committee (আহিরিটোলা ঘাট বাঁচাও কমিটি).” We then came across several pictures of Ahiritola Ghat in Kolkata on Google Maps. In one of the images, we spotted the poster seen in the viral video. We also observed that the Ahiritola Ghat gate was visible in the viral video at the 9-second mark. After comparing the viral video with the Google Maps image, we concluded that the video was captured in front of the Ahiritola Ghat gate. According to Google Maps, the Bhootnath temple is just 230 meters away from the Ghat gate.

The viral video had surfaced in 2022 with a similar claim as well and was debunked by several fact-checking organizations.

The Verdict

The viral video was captured in 2021 near the Bhutnath temple in Kolkata and reportedly shows police beating devotees for violating COVID-19 restrictions. The video is not of Kanwar Yatra pilgrims being assaulted by police this year. Therefore, we mark the claim as misleading.