How Journalists Are Hunting 'Bangladeshis' in West Bengal

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News18 recently published a report claiming that a video of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, where he is heard stating that ISI has recruited more Hindus than Muslims for intelligence tasks in India, is a deepfake. The outlet carried Doval’s on-record denial and incorrectly framed the clip as manipulated, and also erroneously wrote “ISIS” instead of “ISI.” 

Context: The clip has gone viral in the backdrop of the November 10, 2025 car explosion in Delhi that claimed 13 lives, as part of a larger terror module that authorities are investigating across several states. 

It’s real: BOOM reviewed the source footage and found that News18’s assessment is incorrect. 

1. BOOM found that the viral clip is not a deepfake. The video originates from a publicly available recording of a 2014 event.

2. Between the 01:04:00 and 01:14:00 timestamps, Doval can be clearly heard saying: “The number of persons that ISI has recruited for intelligence tasks in India… there has been more Hindus than Muslims.” This matches the viral clip. 

3. The video is from March 11, 2014, which predates the public accessibility of deepfake creation tools. 

4. BOOM escalated the footage to its partners at the Deepfakes Analysis Unit. Their tool assessments found:

   • Hive AI audio classifier: Entire audio track classified as “not AI-generated.”

   •  ElevenLabs speech classifier: Rated “Very Unlikely” that the audio was generated using their platform.

   • Aurigin AI: Analysis conducted using its advanced audio deepfake detection engine found the audio to be genuine.

   • Hive AI video detector: No detection of AI in the frames featuring Ajit Doval. (DAU added that because the source footage has low-quality audio and video, tool certainty can be reduced, and detection outcomes should be interpreted with that limitation in mind)

New AI detection tool:

Google has launched its digital watermarking technology called SynthID for everyone to verify if an image was generated with or edited by Google AI in the Gemini app.

If you want to check if an image was made by Google AI, upload it to the Gemini app and ask: "Was this created with Google AI?" or “Is this AI-generated?”
Gemini will check for the SynthID watermark and give you more context about the image.

Online research expert Henk van Ess experimented with this new tool and has documented the results here.

DECODE

Chased, Filmed, Accused: How Journalists Hunted For ‘Bangladeshis’ In West Bengal

Rafiqul Sardar had just returned from his shift at a Salt Lake garbage depot when a reporter appeared outside his makeshift home near Kolkata's Central Park metro station. The 23-year-old was confronted by a reporter with a microphone and phone, demanding to see his voter identification card and proof of Indian citizenship. 

What happened next has been viewed more than 15 million times. 

In the viral video, Sardar attempts to explain his situation before walking away – only to be pursued by the reporter shouting in Bengali: "Dada, where are you running away? You are a Bangladeshi, you are a Bangladeshi."

Media outlets have deployed reporters to "verify" the citizenship of residents in working-class neighbourhoods. These videos, where journalists are chasing residents, demanding documents and branding them “Bangladeshi” are viral on social media platforms.

Swasti Chatterjee & Srijit Das met Sardar, and some others who have been branded as “Bangladeshis” in viral videos. Read their ground report.

The Folk Stars of Nautanki Are Going Viral. They Don’t Know Who Put Them Online

Inside a shamiana (a ceremonial tent), commonly used for festive occasions in India, a stage has been set for Nautanki. The crowd gathers in anticipation. A man in khaki trousers, a pink-and-purple shirt, and a sequinned hat steps to the mic. “Mai khadkhara waala hun [I am a tonga driver],” he declares, voice bouncing across the loudspeakers. 

This is Haggan Joker on stage—Wasiuddin by name, sixty years old, a local Nautanki star from Dhema village. 

Over five years ago, someone in the crowd recorded this clip on a phone. The video now has over 10 million views on YouTube. But Wasiuddin had not uploaded that video, he does not even own a smartphone.

“A local journalist once told me that videos of my performances had thousands of views on YouTube,” Wasiuddin says. “But I have never earned a thing from those videos,” he told Nuzhat Khan & Shaba Manzoor.

LAW, JUSTICE ET AL

The "Balancing Act" Of CJI BR Gavai

At the end of his 40-year career, outgoing Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said he joined the bar in 1985 as a “student of law”, and now retires as a “student of justice”. CJI BR Gavai today bid farewell to the court on his last working day before he retires on Sunday, November 23. 

If one analyses CJI Gavai’s orders, one can see that he mainly took decisions on matters that directly affected the people, and on decisions concerning the institution and its independence. 

Ritika Jain profiles CJI Gavai’s journey from a municipal school to the highest office in court.

'FAKE NEWS’ YOU ALMOST FELL FOR

🔍  A video of a large torchlight rally was shared online with a false claim that it shows Indian Gen Z marching against alleged vote theft and the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Read 🔗 Srijit Das’ ↗️ fact-check.

🔍  A viral video on social media falsely claimed to show Bihar leader Nitish Kumar stating that PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah orchestrated the Pahalgam attack and the recent blast in Delhi to help the NDA alliance win elections. 🔗 Archis Chowdhury ↗️ found it’s actually a deepfake!

🅱️ RECOMMENDS

This week's recommendation is: Understanding the impact of misinformation on adolescents

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Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

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