A video of a person surrounded by a group of police, threatening to commit suicide, is widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that the man in the video incited the Mira Road violence by pelting stones at Hindus. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: The video depicts the man who incited the Mira Road violence by pelting stones at Hindus.
Fact: This viral video is from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, a Meerut resident named Manish Prajapati filed a case alleging that Rashid and Danish had threatened to murder him by showing a gun in the hotel. When the police went to arrest Rashid and surrounded him, upon seeing himself surrounded by the police, Rashid threatened to commit suicide. This case has no connection with the Mira Road violence. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To check the veracity of the viral video, we performed a reverse image search on the internet using a few of its keyframes, which led us to several news reports (here, here, & here ). According to these reports, in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), a miscreant fired in the air to avoid being caught by the police and then later pointed the pistol at his forehead. Later, the police somehow caught the miscreant.
To know more about this incident, we conducted a relevant keyword search, which led us to several news reports (here, here & here ) reporting this incident. According to these reports, a Meerut resident named Manish Prajapati had filed a case alleging that Rashid and Danish had threatened to murder him by showing a gun in the hotel. In response to this complaint, the police apprehended Danish and went to arrest Rashid. Upon seeing the police surrounding him, Rashid pointed the gun to his head, threatening suicide. However, the accused was caught and taken to the police station. A local journalist named Sachin Gupta from Meerut also shared this video on Twitter (X) on 27 January 2024, identifying the person as Rashid Khan from Meerut.
Regarding this incident, Meerut Police released a Press note from its official X (Twitter) account stating that, “Police have snatched the pistol from Rashid and arrested him, two 32 bore pistols and cartridges were found with him.” From all this information, it is evident that the viral video is from Meerut. Factly previously debunked multiple claims related to Mira Road Violence can be seen here, here, & here.
To sum it up, this viral video, showing a man pointing a gun at himself, is not related to the Mira Road violence.
