UPDATE (15 November 2022): On the occasion of children’s day, a lot of social media users have shared the same video with a claim that the woman caught with the pistol is a teacher. The article has been updated with the FIR copy and the clarification from the police that she is not a teacher.
A social media post accompanying the video that shows a female police officer frisking a woman and taking out a pistol from her trouser’s pocket is being widely shared with a claim that the woman found with a pistol is a Muslim teacher. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of police finding a pistol hidden in the pocket of a Muslim teacher in UP.
Fact: It is true that Kotwali police of Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh arrested a woman for possession of a pistol in April 2022. However, the woman is not from Muslim community. As per the news reports, police identified the woman as Karishma Singh Yadav from Ferozabad. Also, the police have clarified that she is not a teacher. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The viral visuals are related to a recent incident where the Mainpuri police of Uttar Pradesh seized a pistol from a woman. However, the woman is not from the Muslim community as claimed in the viral post.
Google search with relevant keywords yielded multiple news reports that reported the viral video (here, here & here). As per these reports, acting on a tip-off, the Kotwali police of Mainpuri district arrested a woman for possession of a pistol and was also presented in court.
As per the reports, police identified the woman as Karishma Singh Yadav, a woman from Firozabad who came to Mainpuri for some work. The name of the woman suggests that she is not from the Muslim community.
Mainpuri police through a tweet shared a press report related to the incident. The tweet shared a news clip that reported the arrest. The news clip shared by the police also reported the name of the woman as Karishma. Further in our correspondence, Kotwali police confirmed that the woman held for possession of a pistol is not a Muslim.
The FIR filed on the incident can be found here. The Mainpuri Police have clarified that the woman caught with the pistol is not a teacher as claimed in the post, though some news reports mentioned her as a teacher.
To sum it up, the woman arrested for possession of a pistol in Uttar Pradesh is neither a teacher nor a Muslim.
