Update (21 JULY 2022):
In a recent development on the ‘Lulu Mall’ Namaz recital incident, Lucknow police arrested four men and have taken them into custody. The names of the arrested men are Mohd Rehan, Atif Khan, Mohd Lukman Ali and Mohd Nauman Ali, of Laharpur, Sitapur. Lucknow Police though a tweet has also confirmed the arrest of the individuals.
Published (19 JULY 2022):
Amid the controversy around a few people offering namaz inside Lulu mall in Lucknow, and reports speculating their religious identity, a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that three Hindus were arrested for offering namaz. Few other similar posts with a police press note are also being shared. Let’s fact-check these claims.
Claim: Three Hindu persons were arrested by the UP police for reciting Namaz inside the Lulu Mall.
Fact: These three men, Sarojnath Yogi, Krishna Kumar Pathak, and Gaurav Goswami along with Arshad Ali were arrested by the UP police for trying to perform religious rituals in the mall on 15 July 2022. These arrests are not related to the original incident where eight persons reportedly offered namaz inside the Lulu Mall on 12 July 2022. Hence this post is MISLEADING.
Upon searching the internet with relevant keywords, we found an article published in the ‘The Hindu’ related to the same incident. The report states that the UP police clarified that no non-muslims offered Namaz inside the Lulu mall.
The article further reads, ‘Saroj, Krishna, and Gaurav, were allegedly trying to perform a puja while Arshad was allegedly trying to offer Namaz on the premises. Sources said the eight people who allegedly offered Namaz on 12th July were yet to be traced.’
The same was reported by other media outlets too stating that the press note released by the police clarified that ‘Misleading news was circulated on social media claiming that three out of the four people arrested on 15 July 2022 were the namazis in the July 12 incident.’ The screenshot of the press note can be found in this tweet made by DCP South Lucknow.
To sum it up, these 3 Hindu persons were not arrested for offering Namaz in UP’s Lulu Mall; they were arrested in a different case on a different day.
