A photo is being shared on social media claiming it is a banner placed outside a police station forbidding BJP workers from entering the station. The photo shows a police station in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav had also tweeted about this banner with a similar context. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Banner placed outside a police station in Uttar Pradesh that forbids BJP workers from entering the station.
Fact: The banner shown in the photo was placed outside the Medical College police station in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. BJP workers displayed this banner outside the Medical College police station over the denial of an undue favour by the police in a property dispute. Meerut Police arrested six BJP workers involved in putting up this objectionable banner outside the police station. This banner was not put up by Police officials. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When we searched to find the details of this banner using relevant keywords, we found that the ‘Indian Express’ had published an article reporting the details of this banner placed outside a police station. ‘Indian Express’ reported that Meerut Police detained six BJP workers for allegedly putting up an objectionable banner outside the Medical College police station in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. This incident reportedly took place on 27 May 2022.
According to the article, the origin of the matter was a property dispute involving a family in which the BJP workers got involved and created a ruckus outside the police station. Meerut SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary spoke to the ‘Indian Express’ and said, “They were trying to put pressure on the in-charge to seek undue favour but when it was denied, they created a scene”. Reporting the complete details of the incident, several other news agencies have also published articles. A few of them can be seen here and here.
Meerut Police through a tweet issued a clarification regarding this objectionable banner placed outside the Medical College police station. Meerut Police clarified that the banner was put up by anti-social elements to tarnish the image of the police and informed that they have arrested six persons involved in the incident.
To sum it up, this banner forbidding BJP workers from entering a police station was put by BJP workers, not by the police officials.
