Behind-the-scenes clip from Indian web series falsely shared as real shooting
- Published on November 20, 2025 at 10:28
- 3 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India
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Uttar Pradesh's former chief minister hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after statistics released in October showed the Indian state leading in murders in 2023. However, a video shared on social media praising the Uttar Pradesh ex-leader is taken from behind-the-scenes footage of a web series and does not show a real female police officer being shot in the street.
The 15-second video of a woman dressed in a police uniform being shot twice in the chest as people run around her was shared on Facebook on November 2, 2025.
"A female police officer was shot in broad daylight in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh," reads part of the Hindi-language caption.
Such incidents were "unheard of" under former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is from the opposition Samajwadi Party, but now happened under firebrand former monk Yogi Adityanath from the ruling BJP, the post goes on to say.
In October, Yadav accused the BJP of trying to conceal Uttar Pradesh's high crime statistics behind propaganda after India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released its annual report for 2023, which showed the state leading the country in the number of murders (archived link).
The BJP's Uttar Pradesh spokesperson responded to Yadav's criticism by saying the state was also "number one" in catching criminals, particularly those who committed crimes against women, Indian news outlet News18 reported.
The video was also shared in similar Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X posts, with some posts suggesting the incident took place in another Uttar Pradesh city, Raebareli.
Users left comments indicating they believed the video showed a real attack.
One user wrote: "There's complete lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh… even women police officers aren't safe. The pro-government media just puts up a show, pretending that everything is fine."
"What a cruel criminal he is, he did not spare the poor police officer," another commented.
However, the video does not show a real incident.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip shared on Instagram on October 30, 2025 (archived link).
Its caption reads, "#behind the scene#BTS#shooting#".
The person who posted the video, an actor called Ajay Gupta, told AFP he had recorded the clip in the western city of Mumbai -- more than 1,200 kilometres (770 miles) from Uttar Pradesh -- during a film shoot.
He added that his video had been used to fuel misinformation on social media.
Further keyword searches found the behind-the-scenes clip corresponds to the 4:02 mark of a video uploaded by a YouTube channel called "Nova Crime Thrillers" on September 23, 2025 (archived link).
The title reads, "Female constable shot dead in broad daylight in front of Thane | Crime Patrol | Full Thriller Episode."
The Raebareli Police in a X post clarified that the false video does not show a real incident but is actually from a film shoot and legal action would be taken against individuals spreading misinformation on social media (archived link).
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