The coronavirus pandemic has put everyone on edge. Rumours, speculations, fake messages and videos are not contributing to the betterment of the situation in any way. As the communal tensions rise in India post-Nizamuddin incident, things have escalated, even led to violence in some cases.
Owing to the several Muslim bashing incidents, Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa issued a stern warning against those who accuse an entire community based on a stray incident. But there's a bigger fight against the mounting fake news in circulation, that only grow communal tensions.
A video is circulated on social media platforms and in WhatsApp groups as being taken in Haj Bhavan in Bengaluru. The video shows a group of Muslim men in a dorm-style building. A voice in the video says samples for coronavirus were taken from the people in the afternoon of March 1, but it was reported to be collected on March 3 and results came back on March 4 for the same. The man heard in the video suspects foul play and urges a look into the matter.
Fact check
Dr. Bheemashankar S Guled, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North East Division, Bengaluru City, was able to verify the video. The commissioner said he visited the Haj Bhavan and independently confirmed that it was being wrongly attributed Haj Bhavan Bangalore. He further added that nothing of the sorts as described in the video has happened in Haj Bhavan Bangalore.
This video is being circulated wrongly as pertaining to Haj Bhavan Bangalore, i personally have visited the Haj bhavan and this is not video of Haj bhavan Bangalore. And nothing has happened as alleged in the video at Haj Bhavan Bangalore
— Dr Bheemashankar S Guled (@DCPNEBCP) April 6, 2020
DCP North East, Bangalore @BlrCityPolice pic.twitter.com/al2v5OGnv9
International Business Times, India, was unable to verify the authenticity of the video at the time of this writing. We'll update the article when we further learn about the origin of the video and the context in which it has been shot.
