Ahmedabad: A video of a group of people leaving a mosque is circulating on social media. It is being claimed that members of the Muslim community are gathering at a mosque in Ahmedabad’s Jamalpur amidst lockdown and flouting rules. On April 29, one Jitu Desai posted the video with the same claim on Facebook.
The message further suggests if this situation persists, the lockdown won’t be lifted on May 3 and there are chances that it will extend way beyond Diwali. “અમદાવાદ ના જમાલપુર વિસ્તારનું દ્રશ્ય …..આ પરિસ્થિતિ આવી જ રહે તો 3 May શુ દિવાળી સુધી પણ લોકડાઉન ખોલાય ? આ પરિસ્થિતિ માં કોરોના કાબુ મા કેમ આવે ?” reads the Gujarati text. Alt News had received a request on WhatsApp (+91 7600011160) to fact-check this video.
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Fact-check
With the help of digital verification tool InVid, Alt News broke the video into multiple keyframes. We then reverse searched one of the keyframes on the Russian search engine Yandex and found the same video posted on March 23, 2020. “Masjid closed down at Dongri just now by Local Police ,ACP Avinash Dharmadhikari on the Spot.” reads the tweet. It may be noted that while one-day curfew (Janata curfew) was imposed on March 22, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020.
“Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday imposed a curfew across the state as people continued to defy the provisions under section 144 after strictly following a janata curfew on Sunday,” Mumbai Mirror reported on March 23, 2020. According to a report by news agency PTI, police had received information that 100-150 people were offering namaz inside the masjid despite the orders issued under CrPC section 144 banning assembly of people in the view of the epidemic. A team led by ACP Dharmadhikari had reached the mosque and asked the devotees to vacate the place. Later, an FIR was filed against the trustees of the Masjid by JJ Marg police.
A second video posted on the same day shows the police asking people to vacate the mosque.
The video was also shared by Twitter user Viral Sanghavi on April 8 with the claim that it was shot that same day.
In conclusion, a one-month-old video shot outside a mosque in Maharashtra’s Mumbai was shared with the false claim that members of the Muslim community in Ahmedabad’s Jamalpur are openly flouting the lockdown rules during the nationwide lockdown.