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| - Fact Check: Video of cops pursuing sand mafia passed off as UP police chasing farmer
A video of Uttarakhand Police chasing a man allegedly involved in illegal sand mining is being wrongly circulated as Uttar Pradesh Police chasing a farmer on his way to Delhi to participate in the January 26 tractor rally.
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India Today Fact Check
The video shows Uttarakhand Police chasing the illegal sand mining mafia. The incident took place on January 20 on the banks on River Kosi at Bazpur in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district.
Republic Day in Delhi was marred by violence after protesting farmers broke barricades, damaged vehicles and attacked policemen after diverting from the routes designated for their tractor rallies.
Meanwhile, a video of a police Scorpio chasing a tractor has gone viral on social media. The man on the tractor drives haphazardly on an uneven riverbank, trying hard to dodge the police in hot pursuit. At the end of the video, the man drives his tractor inside the river. An annoyed policeman steps out of the Scorpio and looks helplessly as the tractor reaches almost the other end of the river.
It is being said that this video shows Uttar Pradesh police chasing a farmer who was going to participate in the tractor rally on January 26. A Facebook user shared this video with the caption, “UP POLICE chasing a Farmer’s tractor going for Republic day parade. The tractor driver farmer is a Rockstar.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the video has no connection with the R-Day tractor rally in Delhi. The video is of Uttarakhand police allegedly chasing the mining mafia. This incident took place on January 20.
The archived version of the post can be seen here. The video along with similar claims is being widely shared on Facebook.
AFWA probe
We did a keyword search and found that a YouTube user had shared the same video on January 22. The user said the video is from Uttarakhand and shows police chasing a man involved in illegal mining.
This caption gave us two possible clues about the video. Using a combination of keywords such as “Uttarakhand police chasing tractor” and “illegal mining”, we found a Gujarati news report by “ABP Asmita” which explains the story behind the viral video.
The description of this video says, “A video of Uttarakhand police and mining mafia is going viral. In fact, the police had received a complaint about illegal mining in Kashipur. Police rushed to the spot with Scorpio to stop him. Seeing the police, the mafia took a tractor and started fleeing. Police also ran their car behind the tractor. However, the mafia landed the tractor in the river.”
“Zee News” had also published a report about this incident on January 22.
A video report by “Amar Ujala” published on January 22 carries the statement of Kashipur ASP Rajesh Bhatt. He says, “Illegal sand mining on the bank of river Kosi is a cause of concern. Police had received a complaint about illegal mining. When they reached the spot and chased the people involved in illegal mining, they escaped.”
Ramesh Chandra, the local correspondent of India Today, confirmed that the chase took place at Bazpur in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district on January 20. We also sent the viral video to the Uttarakhand Police spokesperson. He told us that the tractor seen in the viral video has been seized by police.
Therefore, it is clear that a video of Uttarakhand Police chasing a man allegedly involved in illegal sand mining is being wrongly circulated as Uttar Pradesh Police chasing a farmer on his way to Delhi to participate in the January 26 tractor rally.
However, there have been allegations that the UP administration stopped many tractors which were on their way to Delhi to participate in the R-Day tractor rallies.
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