On this year’s Republic Day, hundreds of farmers protesting against the centre’s new agricultural law took out a tractor rally in Delhi. The rally, however, turned violent after a few groups diverted from the pre-planned route and arrived at the Red Fort. Some of them hoisted Sikh religious flags on the monument. The Delhi police resorted to lathi-charge and the use of tear gas shells to disperse the crowd in several parts of the capital.
In the backdrop of this, a number of Facebook and Twitter users are sharing a video purportedly showing the police smashing CCTV cameras installed on the roads during the protests. Twitter user Dayaveer Dhillon shared this clip with the caption, “What the media won’t show you #GodiMedia #FarmersProtest #TractorRally” (Archive link)
What the media won’t show you #GodiMedia #FarmersProtest #TractorRally pic.twitter.com/FS8tamkqE7
— Dayaveer Dhillon (@_Dhillon_1) January 27, 2021
Another Twitter user also shared the visuals, writing, “Now you can see who made the protests violent, the farmers or Modi’s police officers.”
A Facebook page titled WAHEGURU shared this video on January 28, drawing over 500 shares at the time of writing. (Archive link)
Several other Facebook users made the same claim.
Video from Delhi riots
Alt News performed a keyword search using ‘police breaking CCTV camera’ and found several news reports from February 26, 2020. An article by The Quint carried several social media posts related to the video. Multiple users had shared this clip claiming that police officers were destroying CCTV cameras in Delhi’s Khureji. This took place during the February 2020 communal violence in Delhi.
The Quint spoke to a few shopkeepers near the petrol pump in Khureji. On the condition of anonymity, one shopkeeper revealed, “The police also broke the cameras installed in our shop. The cameras seen in the video were installed by the Khureji protesters (anti-CAA).” At the time, anti-CAA protests were continuously being held in Khureji.
AAP’s former social media and IT cell head Ankit Lal’s tweet was shared by thousands of handles, with dozens of journalists among them.
.@DelhiPolice – Why are your personalle on ground braking CCTV cameras?
What do they want to hide? pic.twitter.com/OB0aKk63ML
— Ankit Lal ? (@AnkitLal) February 26, 2020
Scroll had also shared videos from the incident. Some of these show the police roughing up the public.
Therefore, a video of Delhi police destroying CCTV cameras during Delhi riots last year has been falsely shared as farmers’ protest.
The post Video of Delhi police breaking CCTV cameras during Delhi riots viral as farmers’ protest appeared first on Alt News.
This post was originally published on Alt News.
