Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
In the wake of protests over the insult of Prophet Mohammad by suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, several Twitter users are sharing a 1 minute long video of a man threatening to shoot Muslims. Dressed in bright pink T-shirt and sporting a handlebar moustache, the man appears to be standing on a rooftop and can be seen brandishing guns and firing in the air to show that the weapons are real and not fake. Claiming this to be a recent video, users are citing it to be an example of the impunity enjoyed by anti-Muslim voices in the country. Newschecker has found that the video is at least 2 years old.
Note: The video carries abusive language and profanities and will not be embedded by Newschecker in this article.
Controversial ‘journalist’ CJ Werleman was among those who tweeted the video, with the caption “Modi’s Hindus are now posting their promise to kill Muslims on social media with total impunity”. His tweet has received over 3,000 likes and over 2,500 retweets.
Werleman has previously shared false information on several instances and has been fact-checked by Newschecker. You can read the articles here, here and here. Several other users also shared the video on Twitter with similar captions.
Fact check/Verification
On analysing the comments section below the tweet, we noticed a comment by a user @Shahnawazsingle pointing out that the video was old. Taking this as a clue, Newschecker conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video and found a tweet from April 2020, by Twitter user @imrankh58772370, who shared the same video.
One of the other posts read “நாங்கள் ஜெய்ஸ்ரீராம் புலிகள்” (We are Jai Shri Ram tigers), with a screenshot of the same video. On checking Facebook for the same caption, we came across several posts of the same video with the similar captions. On analysing the comments section of one of the videos, we were able to gather that the man was from Lucknow and was arrested following the video.
We then used the keywords mentioned in the comment section by “Malik Ansari” and “Haji Basha” to search online for more information and came across an article published by News18 Hindi on March 02, 2020, identifying the man as Yogendra Singh Chauhan. The article further stated that following the controversial video he was arrested in Lucknow by the Thakurganj police who found him through his social media profile.
Newschecker further reached out to Hari Shankar SHO of Thakurganj police station, who confirmed that the incident was from 2020, and that the accused had been arrested immediately. “The weapons that were seized from the man are still lying in the police station. He does not live here any longer, he has gone back to his native village. Legal proceedings are currently underway in the case,” he added.
Conclusion
A video of a man abusing Muslims and making provocative comments regarding the Prophet Mohammad, is being passed off as a recent incident on social media in wake of the controversial remarks by BJP’s Nupur Sharma.
Result: False Context/Missing Context
Sources
FB post by Punjab Kesari
Article by News18 Hindi
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Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
