New Delhi:
A police officer shoots a man at point-blank range, and then his friend crying over his death, in a video that has been fact-checked by an Uttar Pradesh cop who pointed out it was a scene from a web series.
Rahul Srivastav, the Additional Superintendent of Police of the Anti-Terrorism Squad in the state shared the video on his Twitter account saying it has triggered confusion and queries.
Mr Srivastav then added that after verification it was found out that it was a scene from a web series shot outside a cafe in Haryana’s Karnal. The manager of the “Friends cafe” confirmed this, the officer added.
“#FactCheck- A video of a gory murder by a cop outside a restaurant is floating since today morning on #socialmedia, triggering queries & confusion. On verification, it’s attributed to a #webseries shot outside ‘Friends Cafe’ in Karnal Haryana as per the manager of the Cafe,” Mr Srivastav tweeted.
#FactCheck– A video of a gory murder by a cop outside a restaurant is floating since today morning on #socialmedia, triggering queries & confusion.
On verification, it’s attributed to a #webseries shot outside ‘Friends Cafe’ in Karnal Haryana as per the manager of the Cafe. pic.twitter.com/63GHkScx9j
— RAHUL SRIVASTAV (@upcoprahul) April 12, 2021
The video shows a fight erupt between a young man and a cop after which he pushes him. Within seconds, he takes out his gun and shoots the man dead. His friend starts to shout and cry and sits next to the body. She shouts an expletive at the police officer who then shoots her as well.
A crowd is seen witnessing the incident. The video is from outside a mall; ‘Friends cafe’ is seen clearly in the background, which Mr Srivastav talks about in his tweet.
The video has been circulating on social media without mentioning that it is not real, and the cop and ‘victims’ are just actors.
Mr Srivastav’s tweet to his over 3.7 lakh followers was liked by over a thousand people within a couple of hours. Many Twitter users commented that the video shows policemen in poor light; some said such videos should not be circulated and web series like these should be banned.
sir, we should discourage people to share this kind of videos and people should be strictly warned for this
— Ashutosh Kumar Rai (@ashutosh_3010) April 12, 2021
These kind of web series should be banned , It’s very Scary & Shows a very bad image of Police Department.
— ANKIT MISHRA (@Ankit__Mishraaa) April 12, 2021
This kind of scenes in the web series spreads feeling dishonour and unsafe among the normal citizens of India.
Should be deleted— Yash saini (@sainiyash8151) April 12, 2021
The Uttar Pradesh Police, too, had in a tweet clarified the video was fake.