A post is being widely shared on social media claiming it as an awareness message recently shared by Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi regarding the organised begging and highway robbery crimes in the country. This purported message from the police warns people to be wary of beggars. Also, the post shared multiple precautionary measures to avoid being victims of such scams. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Police awareness message alerting people to be wary of beggars.
Fact: The message shared in the post is being shared on social media at least since 2015. Bhim Sain Bassi had retired as Delhi Police Chief in February 2016. He then served as a member of UPSC till February 2021. Former Police Commissioner of Delhi Bhim Sain Bassi did not release any such message warning people to be wary of beggars. Multiple versions of this message went viral on social media attributed to different State Police. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On searching with relevant keywords on the internet, we found that the same post is being shared on social media at least since 2015. When we searched to check whether former Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had issued any such message warning people to be wary of beggars, we could not find any media report confirming this news. BS Bassi did not publish any such message on his official Twitter handle.
Following his retirement as Delhi Police Chief in February 2016, BS Bassi served as a member of UPSC from 2016 to 2021. In July 2016, the Delhi Crime Branch officials led an operation to crack down the ‘begging mafia’ in Delhi. After 60 days of investigation, Delhi Police confirmed to the media that Delhi does not have a mafia controlling begging operations.
Multiple versions of similar awareness messages about beggars were shared on social media, attributing them to different state officials in the country. In 2018, when a fake circular carrying an emblem similar to Kerala Police was circulated on WhatsApp warning people to keep beggars away during the month of Ramadan, Kerala Police officials issued a clarification confirming it to be a fake circular created by editing an earlier circular or statement.
To sum it up, this purported message of former Delhi Commissioner BS Bassi alerting people to be wary of beggars is a fake one.
