On 26 June 2025, police busted an illegal arms manufacturing racket in Malihabad, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (here, here, and here). The accused, Hakim Salahuddin, reportedly ran a clinic in Malihabad and was smuggling illegal firearms from his house. Police recovered several guns, cartridges, cash, and a deer skin from his residence.
In this context, a photo and video are going viral on social media (here, here, and here), claiming to show 3,000 guns, 50,000 bullet cartridges, and 20 bags full of dollar currency allegedly seized from Hakim’s house in Lucknow. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows arms, cartridges, and cash seized in the 26 June 2025 Malihabad, Lucknow raid.
Fact: Both the viral photo and videos were on the internet before the police seized illegal weapons from Hakim Salahuddin’s house on 26 June 2025, and these visuals are unrelated to the incident. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Photo
This photo is being shared with claims that it shows 3,000 guns and 20 sacks containing 50,000 cartridges recovered from Hakim Salahuddin’s house in Lucknow.
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to its original, unedited version shared on ‘X’ (archived) by a page named Gun Lover in October 2021. This confirms that the photo has been on the internet long before the June 2025 Lucknow raid and is unrelated to the incident.
In the process of the investigation, we found a similar photo on the stock image website Alamy, showing the same visuals as the viral photo. The caption reads: “Carl Baseman, a criminologist with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, looks at one of more than 3,300 guns kept at the ballistics lab in Ankeny, Iowa, Tuesday, June 7, 2005. These guns are used as reference in investigations.” The photo is credited to Steve Pope of the Associated Press. The same image was also featured in a 2005 report by the Quad City Times. Ankeny is a city in the U.S. state of Iowa, where the ballistics laboratory provides scientific and technical support for criminal investigations.
Based on this information, we used relevant keywords and found a YouTube video linked on the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s website, offering a virtual tour of the Criminalistics Laboratory of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. In the video, between 4:11–4:13 and 4:48–4:54, the same scene as the viral photo appears, showing a large number of pistols neatly arranged.
This confirms that the photo being shared as evidence of an arms recovery in Lucknow is actually from the Criminalistics Laboratory in the U.S. state of Iowa.
We also found an X post (archived) dated 27 June 2025 by the Lucknow Police, providing details of the 26 June 2025 raid at Hakim Salahuddin’s residence in Malihabad, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. According to the post, the following were recovered: three pistols (.32 bore), one country-made pistol (.315 bore), two country-made pistols (.22 bore), one rifle (.22 bore), and seven airguns. Additionally, 88 live cartridges, 40 empty cartridges of .22 bore, 30 cartridges of 12 bore, two live cartridges of .32 bore, one empty cartridge of .32 bore, six sticks, two knives, one saw, nine axes, semi-manufactured weapons, accessories and materials used for making illegal weapons, cash, and deer skin were seized. Nowhere in the official briefing did they mention that 3,000 guns and 50,000 cartridges were recovered from Salahuddin’s house.
In the briefing, the official also stated that two FIRs were registered at the Malihabad police station in connection with the incident—FIR number 142/25 for illegal arms and FIR number 143/25 under the Wildlife Protection Act, as deer skin was recovered during the raid. We accessed both FIR copies and verified the official count of arms recovered. Nowhere in these documents is it mentioned that 3,000 guns and 50,000 cartridges were seized from Salahuddin’s house.
Video 1
This video (here, here, and here), showing weapons laid out on the ground and stacks of currency notes inside a room, is being shared with the claim that it shows recent June 2025 visuals from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
We found that the viral video is a compilation of multiple clips. We extracted keyframes from each clip and performed a reverse image search. This led us to several media video reports (here, here) from August 2021 featuring the first part of the viral clip, which shows guns and weapons placed outdoors. The description of those reports stated that the Taliban had seized a large cache of weapons from Afghan forces. As Afghan cities were falling at the time, the seizure of weapons was seen as a major advantage for the Taliban.
Video 2
To get more information about the clip showing stacks of cash inside a room, we performed a reverse image search and found a Facebook post featuring the same video (archived), dated 11 February 2020. While we couldn’t independently verify when and where the video was originally shot, available evidence confirms that it has been online at least since February 2020 and is not related to the June 2025 Lucknow raid.
Video 3
To verify the clip showing several individuals wearing skull caps with weapons in the background, we conducted a reverse image search. It led us to a report by Iran-based SNN, published on 14 August 2021, featuring the same visuals. The report stated that the video shows “American weapons seized by Taliban forces in Herat province.” Following their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban captured a large cache of US-made weapons, which they later showcased during a “victory parade” after the US withdrawal
To sum up, an old and unrelated photo and videos are being falsely linked to the June 2025 illegal firearms case in Lucknow.
