In some states including Maharashtra, the corona cases are once again increasing. In view of this, the lockdown was imposed again in Amravati, Maharashtra, which has now been extended till 8 March. During lockdown, only essential services are allowed to operate in the district. A video of police thrashing common people has gone viral with a caption hinting it to be of recent Amravati lockdown.
Social media users are sharing a video of police lathi-charging at common people. The video is being shared with claims of it belonging to the current lockdown in Amravati, Maharashtra.
Amravati went under lockdown from February 22, after the district emerged as one of Maharashtra’s hotspots in the fresh coronavirus wave. Later on February 27, the government extended the lockdown till March 8. In context to this, the video is viral with a sarcastic caption, “Mahaprasad has started in Amravati, Go and enjoy Mahaprasad in Amravati.”
This, two and a half minute video has started going viral on social media. In the video, on the police barricading, some people are seen looting the public going on two-wheelers. Looks like some police action in watching the video. It is being claimed that the video is of Amravati where the police is punishing those who do not follow the rules of new lockdown. On breaking the video into several keyframes and then doing a reverse image search, it was found that many social media users published the same video in March 2020. A YouTube channel, Vadaplli studios published the video on March 25, 2020. Another YouTube channel, True Time media, also published the same video on March 25, 2020.
The social media users are writing in the caption “New trends of Amravati city. The consequences of new lockdown, what to do now when it is not understood properly and calmly”. Furthermore, a video published on the YouTube channel, Level20Backpack mentioned that the video is of Rajkamal Chowk, Amravati. In the video, a shop named Assam tea centre is visible. When we searched for Assam tea centre, we found the same image as visible in the video was available on Just Dial. As provided by Just Dial, the shop’s location is, ‘Mahanagar Palika Complex, Rajkamal Chowk, Rajkamal
Square, Amravati’. Hence, the video is old and not associated with recent protest, the viral video is from Amravati but from the 2020 lockdown and not the recent lockdown.
