#FactCheck-Old Maharashtra Video of Dancing Policemen Falsely Linked to West Bengal Election Results
Executive Summary
A video showing police personnel dancing on the streets along with civilians is going viral on social media. The clip is being shared with the claim that policemen in West Bengal were celebrating the defeat of Mamata Banerjee and the victory of the BJP.
Research by CyberPeace Research Wing found that the claim is misleading. The viral video is old and unrelated to the West Bengal elections.
Claim
An X user shared the video on April 26, 2026, alleging that police personnel were celebrating BJP’s victory. The post questioned those raising concerns over EVMs, suggesting that even police were openly rejoicing over the election outcome.
- https://x.com/Minakshishriyan/status/2051490074957930510
- https://archive.is/d81OT
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. This led us to a Reddit post dated September 13, 2022, where the same video was shared. The post described it as footage from Ganesh Visarjan celebrations in India, and several users in the comments identified the location as Maharashtra.
Further research led us to a YouTube channel “Yash Arate Vlogs,” which uploaded the same video on September 10, 2022. The description stated that the clip was recorded during Ganpati immersion celebrations in Kolhapur.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0_w5t-4rmTY
We also found media reports from September 2022 indicating that during Ganesh Visarjan in Kolhapur, loud music and festive atmosphere led even on-duty police personnel to briefly join the celebrations.
Conclusion
Our research confirms that the viral video does not show any post-election celebration in West Bengal. It is an old clip from Maharashtra, recorded during Ganesh Visarjan festivities, and is being falsely shared with a misleading political claim.
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Executive Summary
A purported news clip circulating on social media claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) purchased Bhupen Bora, a leader of the Indian National Congress, for ₹50 crore as part of a political deal in Assam. The viral clip further alleges that the transaction took place under the leadership of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and included an agreement to induct several Congress leaders into the BJP.
However, research by CyberPeace found the viral claim to be false and revealed that the original news video had been manipulated using AI and shared with misleading claims.
Claim
On February 18, 2026, a user shared the viral video on Facebook, claiming that the Assam BJP had bought a Congress leader who had lost the last three elections for ₹50 crore, and that the alleged deal led by Himanta Biswa Sarma had drawn public criticism.
Fact Check:
To verify the authenticity of the claim, we extracted key frames from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. During the research, we found the original version of the video published on the website of Aaj Tak on February 16, 2026. In the original report, the anchor is only seen reporting on Bhupen Bora’s resignation from the party. The report does not mention any alleged financial transaction or political deal, contrary to the claims made in the viral clip.
In the next stage of the research, the viral video was analysed using the AI detection tool AURGIN AI, which identified the video as AI-generated.
Conclusion
Our research found that users had manipulated the original news broadcast using AI and shared it with misleading claims. The viral clip does not show any real financial deal between Bhupen Bora and the Assam Chief Minister.
Executive Summary:
A viral online video claims visuals of a massive rally organised in Manipur for stopping the violence in Manipur. However, the CyberPeace Research Team has confirmed that the video is a deep fake, created using AI technology to manipulate the crowd into existence. There is no original footage in connection to any similar protest. The claim that promotes the same is therefore, false and misleading.
Claims:
A viral post falsely claims of a massive rally held in Manipur.
Fact Check:
Upon receiving the viral posts, we conducted a Google Lens search on the keyframes of the video. We could not locate any authentic sources mentioning such event held recently or previously. The viral video exhibited signs of digital manipulation, prompting a deeper investigation.
We used AI detection tools, such as TrueMedia and Hive AI Detection tool, to analyze the video. The analysis confirmed with 99.7% confidence that the video was a deepfake. The tools identified "substantial evidence of manipulation," particularly in the crowd and colour gradience , which were found to be artificially generated.
Additionally, an extensive review of official statements and interviews with Manipur State officials revealed no mention of any such rally. No credible reports were found linking to such protests, further confirming the video’s inauthenticity.
Conclusion:
The viral video claims visuals of a massive rally held in Manipur. The research using various tools such as truemedia.org and other AI detection tools confirms that the video is manipulated using AI technology. Additionally, there is no information in any official sources. Thus, the CyberPeace Research Team confirms that the video was manipulated using AI technology, making the claim false and misleading.
- Claim: Massive rally held in Manipur against the ongoing violence viral on social media.
- Claimed on: Instagram and X(Formerly Twitter)
- Fact Check: False & Misleading
India’s Rapid Digital Expansion
Over the past decade, India has experienced a rapid digitalisation process. The rise of digital financial services, affordable internet costs, and the penetration of smartphones have transformed the way people communicate, transact and do business online.
Online payment systems, including Unified Payments Interface (UPI), have enabled real-time transactions between banks and financial systems. As much as these systems have enhanced access to finance and efficiency, they have also created new opportunities for cybercriminals.
Cybercrime has evolved alongside the shift of financial and social interactions to digital platforms. The fraud attacks on online payments, online banking, and personal information have become common and increasingly costly.
To analyse the scale and trend of cybercrime in India, this analysis will use the datasets released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and financial fraud data released by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Rise of Cybercrime in India
The Rise of Cybercrime in India
Source: National Crime Records Bureau – Crime in India Reports
The data released by the NCRB documents cybercrime incidents registered by the police at the national level under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and criminal provisions covering offences such as cheating, impersonation, and digital fraud. In the past, the offences were listed in the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Following criminal law reforms in India, on 1 July 2024, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the IPC, came into force. Section 419 (cheating by impersonation), IPC, would be related to BNS Section 319 and Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), which would be related to BNS Section 318(4). Similarly, crimes involving forgery and use of forged documents or electronic documents, which were previously contained in the IPC Sections 465-471, are dealt with in BNS Sections 335-340.
The data published by the NCRB represent the number of crimes that reached the point of the First Information Report (FIR) registration, meaning they reflect only cybercrime cases that were formally presented to the law enforcement system to investigate, rather than all complaints reported. The data shows that cybercrime cases increased from 27,248 in 2018 to 86,420 in 2023, a 3.17-fold increase in 5 years.
Two structural shifts are visible: the post-pandemic jump and subsequent acceleration.
However, these figures likely underestimate the true scale of cybercrime because many incidents are reported only through online complaint portals and may not result in FIR registration.
The Financial Scale of Digital Fraud
The Financial Scale of Digital Fraud
This dataset tracks financial fraud complaints reported through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and the estimated financial losses associated with those complaints.
The financial losses reported between 2021 and 2024 increased by 41 times over four years, compared to 2021, from 551 crore to 22,848 crore. At the same time, the number of complaints rose from 262,846 to over 1.9 million, an increase of ~623%, indicating both rising victimisation and greater public awareness of reporting mechanisms.
The contrast between these two trends is striking:
While complaints increased by around 7 times, financial losses increased by over 40 times.
Distribution of Cyber-Fraud Complaints and Financial Losses by Fraud Type
This divergence implies an uneven relationship between the number of incidents and the financial damage that they inflict. Most cyber fraud incidents involve relatively small transaction values; however, a smaller group of fraud categories result in disproportionate numbers of financial losses.
Distribution of Financial Losses Across Major Cyber-Fraud Categories in India
As reported by The Indian Express, based on the data compiled by the I4C, investment-related scams alone account for roughly 77% of reported cyber-fraud losses, followed by smaller shares from “digital arrest” scams (8%), credit card fraud (7%), sextortion (4%), e-commerce fraud (3%), and malware or app-based fraud (1%). This distribution means that even though scams with lower values, like phishing, OTP fraud, and small payment fraud, produce a high proportion of complaints, few categories of fraud produce most of the financial losses.
Analysis
1. Cybercrime is expanding faster than most traditional crimes: The fact that cybercrime cases have tripled in five years shows that cyber offences are presently becoming a significant element of Indian crime. Unlike conventional crimes that require physical proximity, cybercrime can be conducted remotely and at scale, enabling perpetrators to target large numbers of victims simultaneously.
2. Financial losses are concentrated in a small set of fraud categories: As cases of cybercrimes have been on the increase, the monetary losses of digital fraud cases have been increasing at a higher rate. The fact that the number of reported financial losses has increased 40 times in 4 years indicates that cybercrime has a very high economic impact.
3. Complaint volumes and financial damage follow different patterns: When comparing complaints and financial losses, it is evident that cyber fraud losses are unevenly distributed across types of incidents. Most of the prevalent scams reported, including phishing or OTP fraud, involve relatively small transaction values but yield a high portion of complaints. Conversely, fewer categories of fraud, especially investment-based schemes, contribute a significantly higher percentage of total financial losses.
4. Digital financial infrastructure has expanded the attack surface: India’s rapid adoption of digital payment systems, mobile banking and digital financial systems has dramatically increased the number of potential victims of cybercriminals. The scale of online transactions creates new vulnerabilities that organised cybercrime networks take advantage of.
5. Reporting improvements reveal previously hidden crime: The expansion of national reporting systems has enhanced the transparency in the trends of cybercrime. The increase in the number of complaints recorded is partially due to improved reporting systems and not necessarily to the increased criminal activity, meaning that previous data might have understated the magnitude of cyber fraud.
Recommendations
1. Move from reactive policing to proactive cyber-risk monitoring: The conventional models of policing focus on investigation of crimes that have already taken place. With such a magnitude and pace of cyber fraud, India should have systems that are designed to detect and prevent the fraud at its early stages, such as real-time observation of suspicious patterns in transactions by financial institutions.
2. Strengthen financial intelligence sharing across institutions: There are a lot of instances of cyber fraud that use more than one bank, payment system, and telecommunication provider. To detect new networks of fraud sooner, it can be suggested to establish more information-sharing measures between the financial institution and law enforcement agencies.
3. Target organised cyber fraud networks rather than individual incidents: Many digital scams operate through organised networks that coordinate phishing, mule accounts, and fake payment channels. The solution in regard to this involves dismantling these networks through investigative procedures instead of treating incidents on a case-by-case basis.
4. Improve recovery mechanisms for stolen funds: The recovery of the funds lost is one of the most difficult issues in cases of cyber fraud. Expanding systems such as the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) can improve the speed at which fraudulent transactions are frozen or reversed.
5. Strengthen digital financial literacy: A significant percentage of cyber frauds are based on social engineering methods that take advantage of user behaviour as opposed to technical weaknesses. Victimisation can be greatly reduced through specific public awareness efforts on typical scam schemes.
Conclusion
India’s experience illustrates a broader global trend: as economies digitise, crime increasingly follows the flow of digital money. While cybercrime incidents are rising steadily, the much faster growth in financial losses suggests that cybercriminals are becoming more organised, technologically sophisticated, and economically motivated.
References:
- https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indians-lost-rs-53000-crore-fraud-cheating-cases-six-years-maharashtra-2025-10452185/
- https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2226441®=3&lang=2 -
- https://www.ncrb.gov.in/crime-in-india.html
- https://i4c.mha.gov.in/index.aspx
- https://i4c.mha.gov.in/index.aspx
