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| - Fact Check: Railways did not urge devotees to postpone their visit to Prayagraj, the video is digitally altered
As the world's largest religious congregation is drawing to a close, more than 1 crore devotees are expected to attend
Claim :
Authorities are appealing to the devotees to postpone their plan to go to Prayagraj in a crowded railway stationFact :
The audio is digitally altered and added to the video of the crowded railway stationAs the world's largest religious congregation is drawing to a close, more than 1 crore devotees are expected to attend the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela's final Amrit Snan on Wednesday on the occasion of Mahashivratri. The Uttar Pradesh government has made elaborate arrangements to deal with the massive influx of pilgrims on the last day of Maha Kumbh, including making the Mela area a no-vehicle zone from February 25 evening, as part of preparations for Maha Shivarathri. Nearly 64 crore devotees have taken a holy dip in the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers, since the Maha Kumbh commenced on January 13. There have been a total of five Amrit Snans to date, January 13, 14, 29, February 3, and 12. The inflow of the devotees is causing heavy congestion on the roads of Prayagraj. Despite barricading the entry point of the city, a continuous flow of vehicles on the roads made devotees walk several kilometers to reach the mela. Long queues of vehicles on Varanasi, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Rewa-Chitrakoot, Kanpur, and Lucknow routes entering Prayagraj were witnessed.
Meanwhile, a video showing huge crowd in a railway station with an announcement pleading the devotees to postpone their journey to Maha Kumbh and go back home is in circulation on social media with a Hindi caption “व्यवस्था का आस्था से अनुरोध! सभी श्रद्धालुओं से अपील है कि प्रयागराज जाने का कार्यक्रम स्थगित कर दें!” When translated, it claims that the Railway authorities are announcing and appealing to the devotees to postpone their journey to Prayagraj to participate in Maha Kumbh. This video is in circulation with the hashtags #mahakumbhstampede #mahakumbh2025
Here is the archive link for the claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. The video is an edited one, the audio in the video has been added to make a misleading claim.
When searched using keyframes extracted from the video, though we could not find the same video, we found similar visuals published on News 18, where a huge crowd can be seen getting into the train.
We also found similar video posted on X with the caption पटना गया पैसेंजर में इस कदर भीड़ है। ट्रेन की संख्या अगर नहीं बढ़ा सकते हैं तब कम से कम बोगियों की संख्या ही बढ़ा दीजिए. @AshwiniVaishnaw जी. When translated, it states “There is so much crowd in Patna Gaya Passenger. If you cannot increase the number of trains, then at least increase the number of coaches.” We hear no such announcement in the viral video.
When searched further, we found a video published on Instagram on January 29, 2025, showing a person appealing to the devotees on the road telling them to halt their program to go to Maha Kumbh, this is the request from the authorities.
The audio from this post has been added to the video showing huge crowds in the Railway station and made viral to show that this announcement was made by the railway authorities recently. The claim is Misleading.
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