On July 9, over 25 crore workers, including farmers and daily wage workers, joined the Bharat Bandh to protest pro‑corporate labour reforms, privatisation, and new labour codes, disrupting schools, banks, transport and mining industries.
On the same day, Bihar witnessed a statewide protest led by opposition parties such as RJD, Congress, CPI-ML against special voter-list revision, featuring road and rail blockades across multiple districts.
In the above context, a video is widely being shared on social media in which Bihar police personnel are seen lathi-charging protesters. Those sharing the video claim that it shows police action on people during the Bharat Bandh on July 9.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “Patna #Police on closure of Bihar, well whatever is happening is happening peacefully..!! #Bihar #BiharBand.” (Translated from Hindi)
SouthCheck found that the claim is misleading. The viral video is old and unrelated to the recent strike.
We found that the video had a logo of ANI in the top-right corner of the video.
On doing a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by ANI’s X handle on August 21, 2024. The video was shared with a caption that reads, “Bihar: Police lathi-charge people in Patna as they stage protest in support of a day-long Bharat Bandh against the Supreme Court's recent judgment on reservations.”
We found that News Nine had also shared the video. At the 15:38-minute mark, we can see that it contained the viral clip.
We further found that the incident was also reported by Money Control on August 21, 2014. The report stated that large protests erupted across Bihar on August 21, 2024, as Dalit and Adivasi groups—backed by parties like RJD, BSP and Congress—blocked roads and railways over the SC’s sub‑quota verdict; other states saw mixed responses.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral video is old.
