Video of burqa-clad smuggler from Andhra shared with communal twist

Hyderabad: A video showing policemen asking a person to remove a burqa is going viral on social media. The video further shows that the person in the veil was a man, not a woman.

Surendra Rajput, a national media panelist of the Congress party, shared the video claiming that the man was wearing a burqa to defame Muslims and was caught while pelting stones in Karnataka.

Many others shared the video claiming the same. (Click here, here, and here to view more posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video dates back to at least 2020 and is from Andhra Pradesh.

On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found the extended version of the video published on ETV Andhra Pradesh’s YouTube channel on 8 August 2020. The caption stated that several people were arrested in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh for illegally transferring liquor. It also mentioned that the liquor bottles were hidden inside their burqas.

The same video was also published by the YouTube channel Etikala Eliyas E-News on 8 August 2020. As per the caption, the video shows liquor dealers wearing burqas.

We also came across a tweet by Dr Fakkeerappa Kaginelli from 16 August 2020. He was the SP of the Kurnool district at the time. He clarified, “The burqa-clad man in this video was found carrying liquor bottles illegally across the state from Telangana to Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. Caught by Excise police, was reported on 7-8-2020 in Kurnool Taluka Police station.”

From this, we conclude that the video shows liquor smugglers caught by the police in Andhra Pradesh. Hence, the claim that the video shows stone pelters in Karnataka is false.