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Old Video From 2017 Shared As Recent Incident Of Muslim Man Jumping Under Kanwar Yatris Truck
Uttar Pradesh, 24 July 2022 10:30 AM GMT
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Madhu Purnima Kishwar shared the video and wrote, "This morning in "Deoband" a "Muslim" person dies under the truck of "Kavadis", due to which a ruckus has arisen that the "Kavadis" have deliberately killed this person. The authorities have started proceedings by registering a case against the persons. It’s good that a child who was making a video captured the video of that incident." The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the viral claim.
A graphic video showing a man jumping in front of a truck is going viral across social media. The video is going viral in the context of the recent Kanwar Yatra.
Kanwar Yatra is a pilgrimage undertaken by devotees of Lord Shiva where they visit places like Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri to fetch holy water from the Ganges and then worship the Hindu God with the same water. On July 23, six persons from a group of Kanwar Yatra pilgrims were crushed to death by a speeding truck, as per this NDTV report.
Claim:
The video shows a person filming trucks passing by. As one truck passes, a man jumps in front of the back tyres of the truck. The person pulls the camera down and stops filming.
Netizens have claimed that this incident took place recently in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh. They also claimed the the truck that the man jumped before was carrying Kanwariya pilgrims. Netizens have also alleged that the man was from the Muslim community and the police filed a case against the pilgrims, investigating if there was an intentional conspiracy behind the death.
Madhu Purnima Kishwar, a right-wing social media personality, shared the video with the following claim.
In a Twitter thread, she referred to the video stating the following in Hindi. She says, "This morning in "Deoband", a "Muslim" person died under the truck of "Kanwariyas", due to which a ruckus has arisen that the "Kanwariyas" have deliberately killed this person. The authorities have started proceedings by registering a case against the persons. It's good that a child who was making a video captured the video of that incident. The Muslim man deliberately jumped under the truck's rear wheel carrying "Kanwariyas" and died on the spot. "Since "Deoband" is a very sensitive place, there was every possibility of such an incident provoking a riot, but the matter was settled with the video made by this child. The thing to think is that why did this "Muslim" person choose only the truck of "Kanwaroyas" to commit suicide? Was there some well thought out conspiracy?"
Similar claims with the viral video have been circulated across Twitter and Facebook.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. Viral video is from 2017 and no communal angle was involved in it.
In our Fact Check, we found that the Kanwar Yatra is known as Kavadi Aattam in South India. As per this article on MapMy India and this article authored by Devdutt Patanaik in Mumbai Mirror, both the rituals share several similarities. Devotees of Lord Murugan in South India are known as Kavadis.
We used InVid's Keyframe Analysis to isolate the keyframes of the viral video. We then conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video which led us to this video uploaded on Facebook by user Arman Khan. The translated caption of the video was uploaded on July 18, 2017, which read as, "This is the truth of the accident on Deoband G.T. Road. Kavadis were accused of accident but see the truth in this video."
We conducted a keyword search across YouTube and came across the same video uploaded by a YouTube channel on July 24, 2017.
This prompted us to perform another keyword search dating back to 2017. We came across this report by Live Hindustan, published on 18th July 2017. The title reads, "Muslim youth commits suicide by jumping under a truck transporting Kanwariyas, the footage stopped the situation from worsening." As per the Live Hindustan report, Wahid, a resident of Laheswada in Deoband, committed suicide by jumping under a vehicle carrying Kanwariyas in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh. The family members of Wahid are quoted as saying that the dead body of the youth should be cremated without any legal action.
We came across a report published by Dainik Jagran on July 18, 2017. The report notes that after the death of Wahid, a crowd gathered at the spot with a possibility of uproar. After receiving news of the incident, heavy police force was deployed to maintain law and order. The body was sent for postmortem.
The Dainik Jagran report also states that investigation was being conducted by considering all possibilities, including foul-play. The truck was carrying Kanwariya pilgrims who were taken to the police station, but were released after the investigation, as per the report.
Scroll.in report published on July 18, 2017, gave more information about the incident. The Scroll report quotes Babloo Kumar, the Senior Superintendent of Police of Saharanpur. He says that the incident might have been a coincidence or possibly a planned attempt at inflamming communal tensions. The police would be investigating both angles, the report said. Kumar also said that "the man (Wahid) was a little disturbed, as his family claimed."
"The accident took place around 8 am, and the video went viral around 1 pm" Kumar told Scroll.in. "It can be a coincidence or a planned case as the man was a little disturbed, as his family claimed."
In our Fact Check, we also came across this report by ScoopWhoop published on July 19, 2017. The report quoted Pankaj Kumar Tyagi, Station House Officer of Deoband. He is quoted as saying, "This is a case of suicide. There is no communal angle to it,"
In our Fact Check, we also came across this tweet by the official handle of Saharanpur Police published on July 20, 2022. The translated caption reads as, "A false news is being spread through certain social media that a Muslim committed suicide under a truck of Kavadis in the morning at police station Deoband. Saharanpur Police denies this untrue and misleading news."
We also found that the official Twitter handle of UP Police Fact Check has quote-tweeted Madhu Purnima Kishwar's tweet. They clarified in the caption, "The matter is related to the incident that took place in 2017 and necessary legal action has been taken at that time. Saharanpur Police has denied the misleading post."
Conclusion:
We found that the video dates back to 18th July 2017. The video does show that a man from the Muslim community committed suicide after jumping under the wheels of a truck carrying Kanwariya pilgrims. However, we found several statements from police authorities of Saharanpur stating that there is no communal angle to the incident. The police said that the man was reportedly disturbed.
Saharanpur Police and UP Police have advised people not to share the video as it depicts an incident where action has been taken. They have also noted that strict action will be taken against those who do so. Thus, we can conclude that the viral video is partly false and shared in a misleading manner.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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