Delhi Police personnel were not burning the bus in the viral video - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 17, 2019
A video and its screenshots are being shared widely on social media with a claim that the Delhi Police personnel were burning a bus and framing the protestors. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Video of Delhi Police personnel burning the bus.
Fact: The Police personnel in the video were trying to douse the fire. The same bus was found in the depot in the same condition as in the video.  Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
By looking at the video, it can be observed that the police were extinguishing the fire on one side and pouring something into the bus. It is not clear from the video as to what was being poured. Some people on social media mistook it to be some fuel, which they thought was used by the Police to set the bus on fire. Even Manish Sisodia has tweeted blaming the Delhi Police.
चुनाव में हार के डर से बीजेपी दिल्ली में आग लगवा रही है. AAP किसी भी तरह की हिंसा के ख़िलाफ़ है. ये बीजेपी की घटिया राजनीति है. इस वीडियो में ख़ुद देखें कि किस तरह पुलिस के संरक्षण में आग लगाई जा रही है. https://t.co/IoMfSpPyYD
In the video, the bus number can be seen, which is ‘DL 1PD 0299’.  If the bus was burnt by the Police, then the bus should have been charred. But, in a video uploaded by ‘India TV’ on 16 December 2019 regarding the incident, the bus was found to be in the same condition as seen in the viral video. It confirms that the Police personnel were not pouring fuel on the bus and did not set fire to it later. Journalist Rahul Kanwal has also tweeted the pictures of the bus saying that ‘the bus which Delhi Police supposedly set on fire is safe in the yard’.
Talking to media, the police officials Chinmoy Biswal (DCP of South-East Delhi) and Mandeep Randhawa (Delhi Police PRO) clarified that the police were just dousing the fire and have asked the people not spread the rumours.
DCP, South-East Delhi, Chinmoy Biswal: This (Police burnt buses) is an absolute lie. When mob was setting fire to properties, police tried to douse the fire by asking for water from residents. As far as the particular bus is concerned, Police saved it by using water from a bottle pic.twitter.com/mI1Vq7gXKA
Another tweet by Barkha Dutt which includes a video by MOJO STORY terms this as fake news. The video includes the version of the police officer in question along with the eyewitnesses version.
As rumours swirl in #Jamia, our ground report shows that its absolute fake news to suggest that the @DelhiPolice torched a bus with a canister. We unpack how that rumour started here: https://t.co/SKfVvdUAnq
To sum it up, the Delhi Police personnel were not burning the bus in the viral video.
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