The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is an extensive door-to-door exercise being conducted by the Election Commission to update West Bengal’s voter lists.
Running from November 4 to December 4, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are responsible for distributing and collecting enumeration forms from electors to verify and correct voter details. The SIR process has attracted complaints from major political parties regarding alleged discrepancies in the electoral roll.
In the above context, a video is being widely shared on social media, in which people are seen being forced to leave by a young man who is speaking in Bengali. The video is being shared with a caption suggesting that illegal Bangladeshi/Rohingya infiltrators are being removed from West Bengal after the SIR list.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “Chase Bangladeshi campaign in every neighborhood. My neighborhood is Rohingya Bangladeshi chase.”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The video is of a BJP leader harassing Muslim men suspected of being involved in illegal cow smuggling in West Bengal.
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by the TV9 Bangla news channel on August 2. The video is shared with a caption that reads, “Durgapur Cow Smuggling: ‘We will not allow even a single cow to be smuggled from Durgapur’.” In the video, at around 38 seconds ,we can see the same scene as in the viral video.
Taking a hint, we searched with relevant keywords and found that the incident was also reported by India Today on August 2.
The description around the video read, “Tension has erupted in Durgapur, West Bengal, over an incident involving cattle transport. A vehicle carrying cattle was stopped, and its occupants were assaulted by a group of individuals. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has lodged a complaint, accusing members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of perpetrating the vandalism and assault. Following the complaint and a viral video of the incident, West Bengal police arrested two people, identified as Deepak Das and Ganesh Bhattacharya. The police investigation has indicated that the individuals transporting the animals possessed the required permissions. According to the investigation, ‘the documents were valid.’ The incident has led to protests demanding further arrests and has become a significant point of political contention between the TMC and BJP in the state.” The video also has screenshots from the viral video.
The incident was also reported by Dainik Bhaskar three months ago. The report suggests, “On 1 August, in Durgapur (West Bengal), a mob stopped two Muslim men transporting cattle, tied them up, and forced them to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ amid accusations of cow smuggling. Two people linked to a political party were arrested.”
Hence, we can ascertain that the claim is false.