Video of people vandalizing toll plaza in Bangladesh shared as an incident from India

A video of a pickup van laden with many people trying to pass a toll plaza is now going viral on social media. It can be seen on the video that a heated argument took place between the people travelling in the pickup van and the toll plaza workers. A person can also be seen breaking the barrier for the vehicle to pass. Social media users are sharing this video as if the incident took place in India.

However, Fact Crescendo found that the video was shared without proper context. The video is of a recent incident that took place in Bangladesh and not from India.

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Another user wrote, “If Hindus will not wake up now, then very soon Kashmir like situation will be seen all over the country where these people will break the toll plaza barriers and cross it without paying toll.“

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Fact Check-

After closely looking at the video, we found that the registration plate of the pickup van is of green colour with registration number written in white colour. In India, only light motor electrical vehicles have green registration plates. So, this raised our suspicion whether the video is actually from India.

Taking the clue from above, we searched for various registration plates used in vehicles in Bangladesh. We found that in Bangladesh, the green background license plate is used for commercial purpose and the white background license plate is used for personal vehicles. These license plates have four major part ordering in two lines. First line describes the area name and type of vehicle and the second line describes vehicle class and registration number.

A Google Reverse Image Search on a keyframe led us to a news report from 19 September 2024 in which an image of the same incident can be seen. According to the report, the incident took place at the Kuril Toll Plaza of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway in Bangladesh. The brawl started after the vehicle denied to pay the toll. As per the rules, passenger transportation is prohibited in goods vehicle. The toll automatically detected passengers in the pickup van and did not allow the vehicle to pass the toll plaza. After this, the mob engaged in a heated argument with toll plaza staff, broke the barrier and eventually crossed the toll plaza. Police are currently investigating the case.

A video of the same incident was also reported on Somoy TV YouTube Channel on September 18, 2024. The incident took place at Kuril toll plaza in Dhaka. The brawl started after a pickup vehicle carrying passengers without permission was stopped at the toll plaza. The staff refused to remove the barricade after the vehicle denied to pay the toll charges. This led to a brawl among the toll plaza staff and the passengers in the vehicle. One of the persons broke the barrier and the vehicle crossed the toll. According to the report, toll plaza authorities informed the police but no action was taken.

Conclusion:

Fact Crescendo found that the video was shared without proper context. The incident of people vandalizing a toll plaza is from Bangladesh and not India.