The man seen burning the Indian National Flag in these photos has already been arrested - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 2, 2022
Images of a man burning the Indian National flag are being shared on social media through a post. The said post calls out for the man’s arrest. Let’s fact-check the claim.
Claim: Police are yet to arrest this man who is seen burning the Indian national flag.
Fact: This incident occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam in 2016. The man who burnt the Indian National Flag was Dilipan Mahendran, and the police arrested him. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A reverse image search of the post’s photo led us to a news report on the incident by The News Minute. Reportedly, the man seen burning the flag in the pictures has done that to express his frustration against the system. This incident took place in Tamil Nadu in 2016. Multiple news organizations have reported the incident, and we found that his pictures went viral on social media after posting them on his Facebook profile. These reports can be read here, here, and here.
This man, Dilipan Mahendran, was later arrested by the police and booked under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and IT Act. Even though Dilipan was arrested in 2016, it is still being claimed that he has not been arrested for the past three years even after posting the images on social media.
To sum it up, the man seen burning the Indian National Flag in these photos has already been arrested, contrary to what the post claims.