Fact Check: More anti-Agnipath violence in Bihar? No, this viral video is from Odisha last year
A video of a mob attacking a police van has gone viral with the claim of more violent anti-Agnipath protests in Bihar. However, this viral video is from Odisha last year.
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India Today Fact Check
This is a January 2021 video from Odisha’s Bhadrak where locals clashed with police following the death of a young man.
The announcement of the Agnipath Scheme was met with widespread and often violent protests in June. Now, a video of a mob attacking a police van has gone viral with the claim that this shows one such violent protest in Bihar. Another such post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) investigation found that the video is from a 2021 incident in Odisha and is not related to either Bihar or the Agnipath scheme.
AFWA Probe
We ran a reverse search of the keyframes of the video and found grabs from the viral clip in a video news story from January 14, 2021. The Odisha-based YouTube channel “ONA Khabar” titled the report, “Protest over the man’s death at Bhadrak.”
A video of people burning a white van similar to the one seen in the viral video at a similar location was also shared by other YouTube channels, including Kalinga TV, an Odisha-based news channel.
According to these video reports from January 2021, the video shows residents of Tihidi in Odisha’s Bhadrak district attacking a police car over the alleged death of a man. Several news portals in Odisha reported the incident.
According to these reports, Bapi Mahalik of Hatuari village was interrogated by the police regarding a case. His body was later recovered from a village pond.
This incident triggered massive unrest in the village and the family alleged that Mahalik died by suicide following police brutality. Villagers blocked the Bhadrak-Chandbali highway near Allinagar and displayed Mahalik’s body on the road.
When police arrived at the scene, protesters set the police van on fire. The video which is now viral was shot at this point. India Today’s Odisha correspondent Md. Suffian also confirmed that the video in question is from the Tihidi block of Bhadrak district.
It is thus clear that the viral video is from Odisha and is not related to the row over the Agnipath Scheme.
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