Fact test: this is not a Jio tower set on fire amid farmers’ protests

Hundreds of Trust Jio Towers in Punjab was vandalized because the protest of farmers against the alleged corporatization of agriculture continues. Following this, the company’s mobile and internet services were disrupted in various parts of the state.

Many opposition leaders and protesting farmers have claimed that the new farm laws are in favor of industry leaders such as Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani and Gautani Adani of Adani Group. Earlier, some protesters called for a nationwide boycott of all Reliance and Adani products, including Jio SIM cards.

In the context, a short video clip of a burning mobile tower circulating on social media with the claim that it is a Jio tower that was set on fire during the farmers’ agitation. The caption in Hindi with one such video translates into: “Effect of the peasant movement! Jio tower set on fire”.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the allegation misleading. This is a video of Dehradun in 2017 and is not related to the ongoing peasant agitation.

The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.

AFWA investigation

Using appropriate keywords, we have a longer version of the same video in a ‘News18”Report dated 29 June 2017.

According to the report, the video came from the Vasant Vihar police station in Dehradun in Uttarakhand, where a mobile tower on the roof of a house caught fire due to a short circuit.

We also found a similar report on the incident by ‘Amar UjalaPublished on June 28, 2017.

Here is a comparison between a screenshot of the viral video and a picture of the Dehradun incident carried by ‘Amar Ujala’.

A longer version of the video in question was also uploaded on September 20, 2017 on a YouTube channel called “BOOPATHI VIEWS”.

Therefore, it is clear that although several Jio towers recently targeted in Punjab, the video distributed is more than three years old and unrelated to the ongoing peasant protest.