Old Video of Kolkata Slum Falsely Linked to Haldwani Land Encroachment Case

Fact-check: This video is from Kolkata and is being falsely shared as illegal encroachment in Haldwani.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing people sitting on railway tracks is going viral on social media with a claim that it shows people from 'Rohingya community illegally encroaching land' near railway tracks in Uttarakhand's Haldwani.

• The video, which has been recorded from a moving train, shows slums, people bathing, and drying clothes on railway tracks. Similar claims can be seen here and here.

An archive can be seen here. 

The context: This comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court on Thursday, 5 January staying the Uttarakhand High Court order which directed the eviction of structures on railway land in Haldwani.

• The apex court said that "there cannot be uprooting of 50,000 people in seven days." The High Court has essentially sanctioned eviction of 4,000 families residing in the area.

• These families have been peacefully protesting since 27 December against the high court order.

So, what about the video?: This video could be traced back to 2017 and it shows a slum located in West Bengal's Kolkata.

How did we find out the truth?: There are two versions of the video which are being shared. However, both show similar scenes. In both these clips, we found several clues which suggested that the location was West Bengal.

• We found posters with images of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

  (Note: Swipe to check all the the posters)

Mamata Banerjee's posters can be seen in the video.

Mamata Banerjee's posters can be seen in the video.

Mamata Banerjee's posters can be seen in the video.

We then did a reverse image search on some of the keyframes and came across a longer version of the video on YouTube.

• This video was uploaded on 13 January 2017.

• The title suggested that this video showed people living on the railway tracks located in Kolkata.

• This 4:05-long video included both the clips.

The viral video matches the YouTube video.

The viral video matches the YouTube video.

• Further, at 3:48 timestamp, we noticed a bridge and a board saying 'Tolly Nalah'.

This is located in Kolkata.

• We looked for 'Tolly Nalah' on Google Maps and found that it is in South Kolkata.

• The bridge seen in the video is called Tolly Canal Railway Bridge.

Conclusion: Clearly, this video is from Kolkata and is being falsely linked to the Supreme Court's decision of staying the eviction of families in Haldwani.

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