Fact Check: Muslims smuggling pistols in ghee cans? No, viral claim is false
A video claiming to show police arresting Muslim youths while smuggling pistols in ghee cans has gone viral.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 7 Dec 2024 9:50 AM GMT
Claim: The video shows police arresting Muslim youths with pistols hidden in ghee cans.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is from 2019 in Delhi, and the individuals arrested were not Muslims.
Hyderabad: Uttar Pradesh Police reported discovering a used cartridge, manufactured in Pakistan, at the scene of the violent incident on November 24, in which five Muslim men were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. Krishan Kumar Bishnoi, the Sambhal Superintendent of Police, stated that six cartridges were recovered from a drain near where a body was found. Of these, five were fired cases and one was a misfire. One of the fired cartridges was marked āPOF 9mm 68-26,ā indicating it was made by the Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF).
The violence broke out during a court-mandated Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey at the Shahi Jama Masjid, a 500-year-old mosque in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, which is protected by the ASI.
Against the context, a video has gone viral allegedly showing police finding pistols hidden in ghee cans during the check-up. Those sharing the video are insinuating that Muslim youths were caught smuggling weapons into the country. The X user mentions that the āincident in Sambhal where Pakistani weapons were found is proof of the video.ā (Archive)
The one-minute video shows individuals pulling out pistols from yellow cans full of ghee. The cans were labelled āSri Hariā.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is from 2019 in Delhi and the individuals arrested were Hindus, not Muslims.
A reverse image search led us to a video report by Dilli Tak, uploaded on YouTube on September 27, 2019, titled āSmuggling in Delhi. Pistol found inside ghee box | Dilli Tak | Crime Capitalā (translated from Hindi).
At the 1:05-minute mark of the YouTube video, the viral visual appeared. The video description stated that the Delhi Policeās special team arrested two arms smugglers who used a bizarre and shocking method to supply illegal weapons in the Delhi NCR region.
The video report mentions the names of the two arrested individuals, Jitendra Jeetu and Raj Bahadur, at the 3:05 mark in the video.
Using the information we gathered, we found a NDTV Hindi report, published on September 26, 2019, which featured a photo of the individuals and the ghee boxes from the viral video. The caption read, āAccused Jitendra and Raj Bahadur arrested by Delhi Police with illegal weapons.ā
According to the report, Delhi Policeās Special Cell arrested two men, Jitendra and Raj Bahadur, from Ghazipur, Delhi, after discovering 26 pistols hidden in ghee cans in their car. The arrest followed a tip-off about an illegal arms supplier from Madhya Pradesh. Upon stopping the vehicle, police found the ghee cans containing pistols and magazines. Both accused, residents of Bhind, Madhya Pradesh, admitted to supplying weapons for several years after connecting with local arms suppliers.
Several other outlets, including Hindustan Times and The Hindu, provided the same details of the incident from 2019.
Therefore, the viral video claiming to show Muslim youths arrested with pistols hidden in ghee cans is false. The video is from 2019, and the individuals arrested were Jitendra Jeetu and Raj Bahadur.
