A social media post accompanying a video of Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh engaged in a heated argument with police, followed by the police taking him into custody is being shared widely. This post claims that police arrested him when he tried to obstruct Muslims offering namaz on road near a temple in Amberpet, Hyderabad. The post also claims that the incident happened recently. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing recent arrest of Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh for obstructing Muslims offering Namaz on road in Amberpet.
Fact: The visuals are related to an incident which happened in May 2019. Clashes broke out between two groups over construction of a Masjid on a land, to which ownership was contested by two factions. It is in this context the police took Raja Singh into custody and released him later. The viral video is related to this incident and has nothing to do with Muslims offering prayers on roads. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The video is two years old and has nothing to do with Muslims offering Namaz on a public road. YouTube search with relevant keywords yielded multiple 2019 news reports which reported the same visuals. In one such video which reported the same viral visuals, we can hear Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar saying that clashes broke out between two groups over a land issue, which eventually led to stone-pelting between the two groups.
Taking a cue from the above-mentioned YouTube videos, Google search with relevant keywords which reported the same incident. As per one such report, clashes broke out between two groups over the construction of a Masjid on a piece of land in Amberpet. While the Wakf board claimed ownership of the land, Raja Singh contested that the land is bought by GHMC.
It is in this context that clashes broke out between two groups which led to stone-pelting and eventually police taking Raja Singh into custody to bring the situation under control. Multiple news agencies reported the incident back then. These can be read here, and here. Further, we could not find any news reports of Muslims offering Namaz on road in the Amberpet area.
To sum it up, an old video of police arresting Telangana MLA Raja Singh is passed off as recent with a different context.
