A social media post accompanying a video of a man who immolates in front of a bulldozer, while people present around try to rescue him is being widely circulated. It is being shared claiming that visuals are from Uttar Pradesh, wherein two men self-immolated to protest Yogi Adithyanath government’s action (demolition drive). Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of two men immolating in UP against Yogi’s action.
Fact: This incident took place recently in Patna, Bihar and not UP. A protesting shopkeeper immolated when the railway officials tried to remove the encroachments. The video has nothing to do with UP or Yogi Adithyanath. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
While it is true that the visuals show self-immolation of a man against an encroachment drive, the incident did not take place in Uttar Pradesh. This incident took place in Bihar.
Reverse image search of the viral visuals yielded multiple news articles that reported the incident. One such news article which published same visuals, reported the incident is from Patna, Bihar.
According to this report, earlier on 16 February 2023, Anil Kumar, a hardware shop owner had set himself on fire, when a team of officials tried to demolish his shop as part of an anti-encroach drive.
Further, multiple news agencies reported the incident, which can be read here & here. According to these reports, when railway officials along with police personnel tried to remove the encroachments near Mehdi Ganj Railway Gumti, shopkeepers protested the drive. And amid the chaos, Anil Kumar set himself on fire.
As per the News 18 report, the injured man succumbed to death while he was being taken to Delhi for treatment. Thus, it is clear that the incident took place in Bihar, not UP.
To sum it up, these visuals of a man setting himself on fire are from Bihar, not UP.
