A video purporting to show that Jai Shri Ram slogans were raised during West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Garden Reach, where 12 people died after an under-construction building collapsed, is altered with a fake audio track.
An illegal building in Garden Reach’s Paharpur area collapsed on 17 March resulting in the death of 12 people. Following the loss of lives, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation formed a seven-member committee to investigate the collapse of the structure. Banerjee visited the spot on 18 March and addressed the bereaved kin.
The video shows Banerjee walking in a narrow lane, as locals stand to greet her Jai Shri Ram chants are heard in the background. Trinamool Congress leaders including Firhad Hakim and Sujit Bose can also be seen accompanying Banerjee in the viral footage. BOOM found that no such slogans were raised, and a forensic test of the video confirmed the audio track containing religious slogans has been overlaid onto the viral clip.
The video has a text in Bangla that roughly translates to, “Paternal aunty is passing by as Jai Shri Ram chants can be heard.” ( পিসি যাচ্ছে আর জয় শ্রীরাম, জয় শ্রীরাম বলছে সব)
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search and found the same video was uploaded on Facebook with the original audio on 18 March, 2024. The user, Minakshi Das Mandal, shared the video with the caption that roughly translates to, “Got a glimpse of Aunt (Mamata Banerjee) in front of my house early morning.” (সকাল সকাল বাড়ির সামনে পিসির দর্শন)
Upon scanning the comments, we found that Mandal had replied to one of her friends stating that Banerjee had come to her area on 18 March, after the building collapse on 17 March.
BOOM, however, could not independently verify if Mandal had shot the video herself. We then found a news bulletin by ABP Ananda reporting from Garden Reach on 18 March. The video report shows Banerjee visiting the building collapse area. Similar visuals of Banerjee being greeted by the local residents of the area can be seen from mark 4:17 to 4:31 minutes. The footage, however, does not cover anyone raising Jai Shri Ram slogans.
Additionally, the visuals were streamed live via ABP Ananda‘s official Facebook page on 18 March, 2024. Below is a comparison of the screen grabs from the ABP footage and the viral video.
BOOM also reached out to an expert to analyse the video forensically. itisaar.ai, a tool developed by the Image Analysis and Biometric Lab (IAB) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, confirmed that an audio was superimposed on the video.
This story was originally published by Boom, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline, excerpt and introduction para, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.