The fake-video menace is not limited to the Iran war, or deepfakes of politicians and stars.

On 21 March, during Eid, a video began circulating on X (formerly Twitter) claiming to show Hindus celebrating Holi in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar. This came against the backdrop of tension at JJ Colony in the west Delhi neighbourhood after a Holi clash which resulted in the death of a 26-year-old man, Tarun Butolia.

Post the clash, several individuals allegedly linked to right-wing groups had threatened to disrupt Eid celebrations in the area.

The claim, however, does not hold.

The Telegraph Online investigated the viral video and found that the footage was not filmed in Delhi but was from outside Osamia Mosque in Karnataka’s Raichur.

The first clue lies in the architecture. Keyframes extracted from the video show a distinctive pastel façade, arched colonnades and a twin-minaret structure that does not match any known mosque in Uttam Nagar.

Mosque outside Uttam Nagar’s JJ Colony (Source: Google Maps)

Local visual references from West Delhi mosques show markedly different layouts. Denser, low-rise neighbourhood structures without expansive courtyards.

A reverse image search of still frames leads to earlier uploads of the same structure tied to Raichur, around 468km north of Bengaluru.

Satellite imagery and publicly available photographs of the Osmania Mosque match the layout seen in the video including the courtyard geometry, entrance orientation and minaret spacing.

Osmania Mosque in Raichur, Karnataka (Source: Google Maps)

The mosque in the viral video. (Source: X)

A screengrab from the video, cross-checked with Google Maps’ Street View from the Raichur footage, shows the same facade. Street View also shows the neighbourhood to be the same as that in the viral video and does not match that of JJ Colony.

Language cues offer a second layer of verification. Ambient audio in the clip includes phrases and accents consistent with Kannada and Dakhni Urdu, not the Hindi-Punjabi mix typical of west Delhi.

A little more digging shows that this video is most likely from Hanuman Jayanti celebrations in the area. This can be attributed to videos taken from other angles in the same area, showing the same mosque and a similar crowd.

Video taken infront of Osmania Mosque in 2024. (Source: X)

Temporal clues further weaken the Uttam Nagar claim. The video shows no visible police barricading, identity checkpoints, or paramilitary deployment, all of which were extensively documented by The Telegraph Online in Uttam Nagar in the days leading up to Eid. According to the Delhi police, the barricading and heavy police protection were put up till Eid.

On the ground, the situation in Uttam Nagar unfolded differently.

Following the killing of Tarun Butolia during a Holi-related altercation, authorities imposed a heavy security grid across the area. Police presence was extensive, with barricades, ID checks, and patrol units deployed to prevent escalation.

Despite fears amplified online, Eid passed without major incident. Residents offered prayers under tight security and, in some instances, even greeted police personnel with flowers – a striking contrast to the chaos suggested in viral posts.

While there was a gathering of right-wing organisations near the Uttam Nagar metro station, they were eventually dispersed by the police, and there were no disruptions to a quiet and sombre Eid celebration in JJ Colony.

The mismatch between the viral narrative and verifiable reality is stark.

What circulated as evidence of unrest in Delhi was, in fact, footage from a mosque over 1,700 kilometres away. In a moment of communal sensitivity, geography was flattened, context erased, and a routine gathering in Raichur recast as conflict in the capital.

It is a familiar playbook: take a real video, strip it of context, and drop it into a volatile setting. The video has over 450K views on X, with thousands sharing the footage across several social media platforms.