Old video of passport found on the roadside in Haryana is currently viral as recent

The viral video is not recent and it dates back to 2018.

A video is going viral where a youth can be seen picking up discarded passports from a paddy field near a village road. The video is being shared with the claim that fake Aadhaar cards and fake passports in the name of villagers were found in the fields recently. The post mentioned the name CISF woman constable Kulwinder Kaur who allegedly slapped actor and BJP MP-elect Kangana Ranaut and Music composer Vishal Dadlani has extended his support to Kulwinder Kaur, who allegedly slapped actor Kangana Ranaut at the Chandigarh airport. 

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation with keyword and a reverse image search on Google and the results led us to report by the Times of India published on March 12, 2018, titled, ‘Over 250 passports for Punjab found dumped in Haryana village.’ 

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As per the reports, this incident is from Sayan village in Sirsa district of Haryana, where on the road from Chakeria to Lakdawali, villagers found hundreds of passports scattered on the roadside. Seeing the pile of passports scattered on the road, the villagers informed Kalanwali police about it. After this, the police took all the passports in their possession. These passports found scattered suspiciously were said to be of residents of Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patna Sahib and Bihar.

Police found a link to the large-scale seizure of passports in Sirsa and Bathinda. News reports related to this incident were published by several media organizations at that time. According to the Hindustan Times report , at least 254 passports were lost enroute after being sent to the head post office in Bathinda through a speed post by the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh in January 2018. Preliminary investigation revealed that the passports belonged to residents of Punjab. These were in the possession of a Ludhiana-based private immigration firm where the passport holders had submitted them to apply for visas. A complaint was lodged at the Civil Lines police station in Bathinda regarding the loss of 254 passports. 

Punjab Kesari Haryana also broadcasted a report on this matter on YouTube which you can see below. According to this report, the incident seen in the viral video is from Sirsa in Haryana in 2018.

For further clarification we contacted Sirsa SP who confirmed us that this incident is from 2018 and no such incident has happened in Sirsa recently. 

Conclusion-  

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral images to be Misleading. The viral video is not recent and it dates back to 2018.