Fake video of patient being killed in hospital goes viral

Bengaluru: A video clip on the killing of a Covid patient in a hospital due to shortage of beds went viral on social media. Karnataka police on Tuesday issued a statement stating that the video was fake.

According to the police, the video was a combination of two clips, one where a person was seen killing a man in a hospital bed, was not at all a Covid-19 patient. "It was actually an old video shared on YouTube related to an incident from Bangladesh on May 19, 2020. The second video is of a staff member of a private hospital in Patiala thrashing a patient. The Patiala police later took action regarding the incident, the police said.

The narration and the video captions which were shared on other platforms had suggested that Covid-19 patients were being killed by hospital staff for money and non availability of beds in Karnataka.

The video had originated from an Instagram account of Mahanayaka_kannada. "It is observed that the page has already deleted this video, and Account Admin has already apologised and clarified about the video as fake and edited by someone with malicious intent," the police said on its fact-check website.

Police said the video was being shared with the intent of spreading fear and panic among the people. The police also put screenshots of the Instagram page moderator apologising for putting the video.

The fact-check wing of the police was launched by Director General of Police Praveen Sood in April, 2020.