Incident of accidental firing by a police officer is falsely shared with a communal narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 23, 2020
A post with a video in which a woman can be seen taking a bullet fired by a police officer during a tussle is being widely shared across social media platforms giving the incident a communal colour. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Delhi police personnel shot a Muslim lady.
Fact: A police constable was manhandled by a group of people while settling a parking dispute and in an act of self-defence, the constable fired four rounds to the ground, one of which deflected and hit a woman in her foot. As per the FIR registered against the group for obstructing a police official in discharging his duties, none involved in the incident is a Muslim. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Google search with relevant keywords led us to couple of news articles which reported the incident. According to one such news article, the incident took place on 25 November 2020 in Delhi’s Rohini area when a police constable was settling a parking dispute. The article further reported the DCP telling the newspaper that the constable was manhandled by a group of people who were involved in the parking dispute, and in an act of self-defence, he had to fire four rounds to the ground, one of which deflected and hit a woman in her foot.
Another news article which reported the incident also said the same. However, in none of these news articles, the incident was reported as one of a communal nature. Further, an FIR was registered against the group of people who obstructed the police official in discharging his duties. Even the FIR says that the constable fired the rounds in an act of self-defence. Also, as per the FIR, none of the people involved in the incident is a Muslin. All these establish that the incident has been given a communal colour whereas in reality, the incident has nothing with the religion of the victim.
To sum it up, an incident of accidental firing by a police officer is being passed off giving it a communal colour.