‘Protesters Vandalised Delhi; Danced In Honour Of Gyanesh Kumar’- Flood Of Disinformation Again
From alleged vandalism to a “dance in honour” of Gyanesh Kumar, unrelated footage is being repurposed to discredit the Delhi protests. OBC fact-checks the viral claims.
As the CJP and opposition protests in Delhi and Mumbai gain momentum, skewed narratives of the events are already circulating online. Within hours of the mass demonstrations that kicked off on Friday, October 2, 2026, several social media accounts began sharing out-of-context video clips, recycled event footage, and AI-generated videos.
From viral dance videos to controversies over the alleged destruction of public property, the wave of misinformation surrounding the October protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gynesh Kumar shows how quickly major political mobilisations become battlegrounds for rampant disinformation.
OBC identified that these viral posts are misleading.
The viral claims
‘The Muslim Vandalism’
On 5 October, the X (formerly Twitter) account @TMoolamattom shared a viral group video claiming protestors from the Muslim community vandalised public property during an ongoing protest in Delhi. The post, captioned in Malayalam, translates to: ‘Are jihadis running amok in Delhi under the cover of cockroaches…? Malayalis are supporting them. Cockroaches have arrived from the home state. Whoever engages in anti-national riots should not be tolerated at all. The government must deal with this firmly.’
As of 5 October, the post had garnered more than 20.4k views and 238 likes.
Many users in the comments accused the post of peddling fake narratives and spreading misinformation. One comment read: ‘Start shooting at sight who is destroying Public Property.’ Another user commented, ‘Wherever there is anti-nationalism, Mallu jihadis are there.’
OBC analysed keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. This led us to a report by The Indian Express on 27 September, 2026.
These reports confirmed that unrest and acts of vandalism were part of student protests at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara, Punjab, over the alleged sexual assault of a female student on 26 September. Furthermore, the incident occurred on 26 September, predating the Delhi protests on 2 October. Therefore, footage from university protests in Punjab was stripped of context and falsely shared with a communal spin.
The dance performance
On 5 October, an X user, Janardan Mishra (@janardanmis), shared the video of women dancing. The video, captioned in Hindi, translates to, ‘Looking at this spectacle, it seems they aren’t demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, but rather performing a dance in his honour.’
As of 7 October, the post has received 376.9k views and 1.8k likes.
Various social media platforms also shared similar videos. A Facebook page account named ‘Sucharita Jenamani’ shared the video on 6 October.
The video is captioned ‘Gyanesh Kumar istefa do! Modi istefa do! Amit Shah istefa do! Rekha Gupta istefa do! Govt should put a cess on protest/istefa reels on road…. I’m sure kafi revenue milega….’. The video has amassed over 8.7k views and 243 likes.
We analysed keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. We found that the footage was originally shared by an Instagram account named “sd_flashzoom”. The bio describes the page as “Chandigarh’s Youth Media Platform”.
The account posted the video on March 7, geotagged at Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College in Chandigarh’s Sector 32.
The video has 8.8 million views, 147k likes and 90.1k reposts. Thus, the video shows an old college cultural event from Chandigarh and has no link to the ongoing protests.
OBC’s investigation reveals that both viral claims rely on unrelated, misleading footage to malign the ongoing demonstrations. The video alleging vandalism by the Muslim community in Delhi is, in fact, footage of student protests at Lovely Professional University in Punjab from September 2026. Similarly, the clip framed as an inappropriate dance routine at the protest site is an old March 2026 video from a college campus festival in Chandigarh. These viral videos highlight how people misuse videos to spread misinformation and controversy.
