Fact Check: Viral video showing sadhus makes a false claim that they are Muslims and kidnappers
The police arrested three men for allegedly beating Sadhus on suspicion of them being child kidnappers. This incident of assault has come to light in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where 3 people dressed as sadhus were accused of child theft.
Claim :
The viral video shows three Muslims, disguised as sadhus to kidnap children, being arrested by police in MeerutFact :
The people seen in the video are not Muslims, nor are they kidnappers
The police arrested three men for allegedly beating Sadhus on suspicion of them being child kidnappers. This incident of assault has come to light in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where 3 people dressed as sadhus were accused of child theft. Social media users, especially X (Twitter) users, are sharing the video with the claim that the three men dressed as Sadhus are Muslims.
This post was also shared by X account of Sudarshan News TV with the caption in Hindi: “मेरठ में साधु बनकर घूम रहे 3
When translated, it claims: “Public caught 3 people roaming around in Meerut disguised as sadhus. During interrogation, he told his name as Sohan, but his Aadhar card showed him as “Mohd. Shamim”. "Mohammad Shamim" along with his gang used to do recce of Hindu localities wearing saffron clothes The public also accused the three of stealing a child @meerutpolice @Uppolice”
Some X users shared the same video with the caption, “The public caught 3 Rohingyas roaming around as sadhus in Meerut. The name is Md. Shamim, Altab & Zubair. They used to do recce of H localities wearing saffron clothes. The public also accused the three of stealing children.”
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The persons in the video are real sadhus and not kidnappers.
When the extracted keyframes were used to search on Google reverse image search, we found a few news articles that published the real fact that the persons seen are not Muslims, in the guise of Sadhus to kidnap children.
According to lokmattimes, at least three were arrested for allegedly thrashing three and holding them hostage in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut with a suspicion of being child kidnapers in disguise. The three sadhus – Gaurav Kumar, Gopinath and Sunil Kumar, are all from Nath sector.
A shocking incident has come to light in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Here, some people mistook three sadhus walking on the road as Muslims and took them hostage and beat them up badly, calling them kidnappers. The accused first made the sadhus recite the Gayatri Mantra, then Hanuman Chalisa. After this, they were asked to show their Aadhar Cards, when the sadhus could not show their Aadhar Cards, people started beating them, calling them child thieves. On getting information about the incident, the police reached the spot.
This incident is from Prahlad Nagar in Meerut's Lisadi Gate police station area. According to the police, three sadhus had gone out to beg on Friday afternoon. In Prahlad Nagar, some people stopped these sadhus thinking them to be Muslims. They were made to recite Gayatri Mantra and Hanuman Chalisa on the spot. When the sadhus passed this, they were asked for their Aadhar card, which is where the sadhus failed. Just because they did not have an Aadhar card, the accused started beating them, calling them child thieves.
Meerut police posted 2 videos on X clarifying that the three people beaten up were sadhus from Yamna Nagar in Haryana.
Hence, the people seen in the viral video are sadhus and not Muslims. The claim is False.
