Prayagraj arson: Old, unrelated videos shared as ‘deserving treatment’ meted out to Chandrashekhar Azad supporters
Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad was on June 29 detained in Prayagraj Circuit House in Uttar Pradesh while on his way to meet two families — one in Isota village in Karchana police station area of Prayagraj district where an individual from the scheduled caste community had been allegedly murdered on April 13, and another in Kokhraj police station area of Kaushambi district where a minor girl had been allegedly kidnapped and gangraped some time between April 24 and 27.
In protest against the detention, supporters of Azad Samaj Party and Bhim Army — both founded by Azad — started a protest in Bhadewara market area in Karchana town, which soon turned violent. As many as 85 people were arrested for stone-pelting, arson and damaging public property.
Against this backdrop, two videos went viral on social media in which police personnel can be seen walking with some men. In the first video, the hands and heads of these men are bandaged and they are limping. The other video shows a group of youths with shaved heads. Users are sharing this video and claiming that the rioting supporters of Chandrashekhar Azad received the treatment they deserved from UP Police.
Video I
X user Megh Updates, who has been found sharing misinformation and communal propaganda on several occasions, shared the video and wrote, “Chandrashekhar Ravan’s supporters who rioted in Prayaggraj are getting the treatment they deserve from Yogi’s UP police.”
X users Naveen Kumar Jindal, Bhiku Mhatre, Apoorva Singh, Om Prakash Pandey, Vini, Rajesh Singh along with other handles like @TheBahubali_IND, @FrontalForce, and @Incognito_qfs also shared the footage with similar claims.
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Fact Check
A reverse image search with frames taken from the viral video led us to the source video posted on a Facebook page named Khabar Padampur and Gramin on June 5, 2025. The post mentions that four members of an extortion gang were nabbed red-handed in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. The group was demanding a sum of Rs 5 lakh from a businessman while posing as gangsters. The businessman’s accountant and his nephew were also found to be involved in the conspiracy.
A Facebook user named NAYAK YODHA also posted this video on June 6, claiming it to be from Sri Ganganagar.
Apart from this, Alt News also found a tweet by Ganganagar Police from June 5, containing a newspaper cutting related to this case. The four accused seen in the video were also seen in the newspaper clipping. The report states that four miscreants had been caught red-handed under a well-planned operation while extorting a reputed businessman from Sri Ganganagar and threatening to kill him. A ransom amount of Rs 5 lakh was recovered from the accused. The arrested miscreants included a employee of the businessman, and his nephew.
News18 Rajasthan also covered the incident.
To sum up, the viral video is not related in any way to the Prayagraj violence or the men accused of rioting.
Video II
The second video, as mentioned earlier, shows some men with tonsured heads being paraded publicly by police.
X user Ocean Jain shared the video and wrote, “Look at what Baba’s police did to the hooligans of Prayagraj”. Alt News has fact-checked this user several times in the past.
Several other X users, including Deepak Sharma, Sunanda Roy, Megh Updates and @FrontalForce also shared the footage and made similar claims while linking it to the Prayagraj violence.
Click to view slideshow.
Fact Check
We noticed ‘@VIRENDRASINGH6513’ written on the frame of the viral video. On searching the username, we found an Instagram profile named ‘Virendra Singh’ where we found the original video posted on June 2. According to the information provided with the post, Baran Police in Rajasthan had arrested 12 people for planning to loot a petrol pump.
NDTV Rajasthan covered the incident and reported that the Baran Police in Rajasthan arrested 12 accused planning to loot petrol pumps in two different police station areas, shaved their heads, and paraded them in a crowded market to teach them a lesson.
In addition, we came across two tweets by the official handle of the Baran Police which mentioned that weapons were also seized from the accused.
Apart from this, the official X handle of the Prayagraj Police Commissionerate also denied the viral claim calling it misleading. They clarified that the video was from Baran.
To sum up, the second viral video is also not related to the Prayagraj violence. It is from Baran district of Rajasthan where 12 people were arrested in early June for allegedly planning to loot a petrol pump in two different police station areas.
The post Prayagraj arson: Old, unrelated videos shared as ‘deserving treatment’ meted out to Chandrashekhar Azad supporters appeared first on Alt News.
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