NEW DELHI - In a video, a cop stands by as people pick up pieces of bricks and concrete debris.

They pile them up on a large piece of cloth to be hauled away and used to pelt opposing groups.

Another shows a mob forcing open the shutter of a shop and torching it, while a posse of Delhi police personnel stand as spectators.

These two videos, shot surreptitiously by people from the safety of their homes, are examples of some critical footage that have helped document the scale and nature of the unprecedented communal violence in Delhi that began on Sunday (Feb 23) and has left at least 24 dead.

The clashes took place between groups opposing a controversial citizenship law and those opposing them.

On Wednesday (Feb 26), there were sporadic incidents of violence as the state deployed greater force to control the situation.

The violence in India's capital is perhaps the first large-scale riots in the country to play out under the full glare of social media.

Crowdsourced footage here has played a key testimonial role, more so with several journalists reporting from the riot-hit neighbourhoods, including this correspondent, being forced by locals to delete videos as well as pictures from their devices.

And while social media is indeed prone to misinformation, footage authenticated by fact-checking organisations have helped establish the full scale of the horror that unfolded on Delhi's streets. One such video captured the destruction of a mosque in Ashok Nagar neighbourhood.

Widely dismissed as a fake or an old video from another state, it shows some rioters clambering atop the mosque's minaret.

As smoke billows in the background, one of them attempts to tear down the crescent. Others tear away its megaphones and place a Hindu religious flag on it.

A representative from fact-checking organisation Boom visited the spot on Wednesday and found that the mosque was indeed vandalised and that the saffron Hindu flag put atop the minaret by the rioters was still present.

"When common citizens shoot videos or crowdsource them and put them out, it gives us better information than probably no information at all," said Mr Jency Jacob, the managing editor of Boom.

He pointed out how access to information can be curtailed during communally charged situations when media organisations either self-censor because of reporting guidelines or due to their institutional biases.

"Even authorities can claim that the situation is under control despite it not being so. In such a situation, the social media does have an important role to play but as a fact-checker, it is very difficult for us to believe anyone unless we do our checks," he told The Straits Times.

A similar intervention came from Alt News, another fact-checking organisation, in the case of a video that shows police personnel in riot gear thrashing five people lying injured on a road.

Captured by one of the cops, the video shows the injured men, presumed to be Muslims, being forced to sing the Indian national anthem and other patriotic songs.

The cops are also heard hurling abuses and repeatedly using the word "azadi" as a taunt while beating the men.

"Azadi", which means "freedom", is a common rallying cry used by those protesting against the current government.

Alt News found a different footage of the same incident, shot by a local from his house, which helped establish the incident's veracity.

Another crowdsourced video captured an apparent Muslim mob chanting "Allahu Akbar" as an injured man was hauled away from them by three other individuals.

Posts on social media during the riots, encouragingly, even helped draw attention to how ambulances were not being allowed to ferry those injured out of a hospital in the vicinity for better treatment.

This drew legal intervention that resulted in a court order at 12:30am on Feb 26 asking the police to ensure safe passage.