FACT CHECK: For the record, man pleading mercy is not BSP member
A video of a man wearing a placard and pleading before cops with folded-hands is viral on social media. Users claim...
By Newsmeter Network Published on 12 March 2021 6:25 AM GMT
HYDERABAD: A video of a man wearing a placard and pleading before cops with folded-hands is viral on social media. Users claim that the man is a former member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
"He is not a beggar but former MP of BSP and a wanted gangster. And this is how he surrendered in front of UP police after they announced a reward over his head. Ye dar accha hai (sic)," reads the claim
Click here and here to view similar claims.
FACT CHECK:
The man has been identified as Naeem and he is not associated with BSP.
We performed a reverse image search and found a video report by NDTV from September 2020. According to the description of the report, the man was identified as Naeem and was arrested by the Nakhasa police (Uttar Pradesh).
"A criminal carrying a reward of ₹ 15,000 on his arrest surrendered to the police here on Sunday with a confession placard saying "don't shoot me" hanging around his neck, officials said. The criminal, identified as Naeem, arrived at the Nakhasa police station in the afternoon", reads the description.
The same was reported by Times Of India, India today and News 18. Station House Officer Dharmpal Singh stated that Naeem was booked under the Gangsters Act. However, none of the reports state that he was formerly associated with the BSP.
Furthermore, we checked the website of MyNeta (a database on election-related information in India) and found that although there are 25 politicians with the same name and none of them belonged to BSP.
Evidently, it is clear that an unrelated video of a criminal pleading before the cops in UP has been passed on with a false claim that he belongs to BSP.
