By: Rajini KG
August 9 2023
2021 video of anti-corruption raid on Karnataka government official falsely shared as Delhi
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The video in the claim is from an anti-corruption raid at a Karnataka Public Works Department engineer’s home in 2021, and not from Delhi.
Claim ID 2aa22f28
Context
A video of a man cutting a drainage pipe and pulling out cash from it is being shared on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube with a claim, "Central PWD engineer's house raided in Delhi, 19 water pipes cut and recovered 13 crores." The video shows money being collected in a bucket as a man climbs atop the pipe and uses a rod to push the money out of it. The post has garnered over 82,000 views at the time of writing.
However, the video is old and from Karnataka.
In fact
Logically Facts found that the people in the viral video are speaking in Kannada. Taking this cue, we looked for reports of money being recovered from inside a pipe in Karnataka. We found that the video is from 2021 from the State’s Kalaburgi district.
A Hindustan Times report published a similar video on November 25, 2021, reporting that officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided the home of a Public Works Department (PWD) junior engineer (JE) in Karnataka and seized cash worth ₹13 lakh from one of the drainage pipes. We can see the same people in the viral video, in the video published by the Hindustan Times.
YouTube channel. (Source: Altered by Logically Facts)
India Today journalist Shiv Aroor had also posted the viral video, albeit from a different angle, on his X official account on November 24, 2021.
According to The Indian Express, a raid was conducted on PWD engineer JE Shantagouda and his Kalaburagi residence was searched by the ACB on November 24, 2021, on the suspicion that he obtained disproportionate wealth during his term.
According to ACB’s official statement given to News First Kannada, over ₹13 lakh in cash was recovered from the pipe seen in the viral video. A total amount of ₹54 lakh was recovered from his home, and not ₹13 crores as claimed in the viral post.
News 18 Kannada, Public TV, and TV 9 Kannada, also reported on the ACB raid on JE Shantagouda Biradar's house in 2021. We found no recent reports about similar raids conducted on a PWD engineer in New Delhi.
The verdict
An old video from Karnataka has been falsely shared as a raid in Delhi. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.