Video shows religious gathering in western India and is unrelated to July 2024 stampede

Published on July 15, 2024 at 08:56
3 min read
By Asma HAFIZ, AFP India

A months-old video of a massive crowd in a field has been shared in posts that falsely claimed it showed the events leading up to a deadly stampede at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India that killed more than 120 people on July 2, 2024. The footage shows an event for the same Hindu preacher, but it was held in western India and the video has circulated online since February 2024.

"Moments Before the Stampede: Caught on Camera. Just before the tragic stampede, a sea of devotees is seen on the ground in Hathras. The incident, which occurred on July 2, claimed the lives of 121 people," read an X post sharing the video on July 3, 2024.

The 34-second clip shows a massive gathering with a stream of people and cars running through it.

Screenshot of the false X post, captured on July 9, 2024

The video surfaced online as a deadly stampede in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state killed 121 people, a vast majority of which were women.

AFP reported the incident took place at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering attended by over 250,000 people, more than triple the 80,000 for whom organisers had permission.

Initially, officers blamed a dust storm for sparking panic. But police later said the stampede began when "followers started to collect earth" from the ground where the popular preacher Bhole Baba had passed.

The same clip was shared alongside similar false claims on Facebook here and here.

Although the video does show an event for the same preacher, Bhole Baba, it was held in western India and the footage has circulated since February 2024.

Old video

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found it corresponds to the 7-minute mark of a longer video shared on YouTube on February 9, 2024 (archived link).

The Hindi-language title of the video translates as: "Auspicious Day Rupbas Bharatpur Rajasthan ~ Hymns of Narain Sakar Hari".

Narain Sakar Hari, alias Bhole Baba, is the same preacher whose religious gathering led to the deadly stampede on July 2 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false posts (left) and the YouTube video (right):

Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false posts (left) and the YouTube video (right)

The title of the video mentions Rupbas, a village in the Bharatpur district of India's western Rajasthan state (archived link).

A bus stop sign with the name "Rupbas" and a sign for National Highway 123 can be seen at the video's 2:19 mark, which correspond to Google Street View imagery of the village (archived link):

Screenshot comparison of the YouTube video (left) and the Google Street View imagery of Rupbas village (right), with similarities marked by AFP

Meanwhile, tractors seen in the video feature the name of Ranjeeta Koli, a former member of parliament for the Bharatpur constituency (archived link).

Screenshot of the YouTube video which features tractors printed with the name of a former Bharatpur member of parliament.

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