Video from Pakistan shared as Karnataka residents arguing with electricity board officials

By: Vivek J
June 23 2023

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Context

Since the new Siddaramaiah-led Congress government took office in Karnataka, several accusations have been made against the government over their election promises, including the scheme granting free electricity up to 200 units. Amid this, a video on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp claims that the Karnataka electricity department is struggling to collect pending dues from its customers. The video shows a man arguing with officials and saying he would rather die than pay the dues. 

One such caption on Facebook read, “#Karnataka Electricity department is paying for the promises of #Congress.” This post also had the video of the man arguing with officials. However, this video is not recent and is not from Karnataka. 

In Fact

This video has been circulating on social media platforms since 2020, with various narratives claiming it's from India. Logically Facts has previously debunked the video. It was also shared with a communal spin implying that some elements were trying to turn India into a Taliban-like State. 

However, this incident occurred in Pakistan, where officials caught a person for not paying the dues. The person appeared to be abusing officials and was adamant that he would not pay up. K-Electric Limited shared this video on its official Facebook page on July 27, 2020. K-Electric is one of the leading power supply companies in Pakistan. 

Siasat, a Pakistani publishing house, also reported on the incident dated July 28, 2020, and shared the same video claiming that the incident occurred in Karachi. A link to this report can also be found on their Twitter account. 

Similarly, another Pakistan-based news outlet ARY News has a video report on the incident where they identified the man as Shehri Ata-ur-Rehman and reported that he was caught by officials for stealing electricity.Thus, it is evident that this is an old incident from Pakistan that predated the new Congress government in Karnataka.

Logically Facts has debunked a similar narrative that used an unrelated video where a person assaulted an electricity department official, linking the incident to the freebies announced by the Siddaramaiah government. 

The Verdict

The video claiming to show people arguing with Karnataka electricity department officials is not from India. This video is from Karachi, Pakistan, where officials reportedly caught a man for stealing electricity in 2020. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.