Fact Check: Machine gun was not found in Bijnor madrassa raid, 2019 incident now viral with the misleading claim
The viral post proved to be misleading in the investigation of Vishvas News. A raid was conducted in Bijnor’s madrassa on 10 July 2019. During that time one pistol, two magazines, four local pistols, and live cartridges were recovered and not advanced weapons or any machine gun were found. In our investigation, the viral post turned out to be misleading.
- By: Pallavi Mishra
- Published: Sep 12, 2022 at 12:33 PM
New Delhi (Vishvas News). Social media users are sharing an image of goons arrested during a raid claiming that a cache of weapons, including machine guns, has been recovered during a raid in a madrasa in Bijnor, UP. In the picture, some people can be seen in police custody. The viral post proved to be misleading in Vishvas News’ investigation. The 2019 incident is now going viral with a misleading claim. A raid was conducted in Bijnor’s madrassa on 10 July 2019. Back then, one pistol, two magazines, four pistols, and live cartridges were recovered and not advanced weapons or any machine guns.
What is going viral
Vishvas News got this claim on its tip line chatbot number +91 95992 99372. Along with it was written, “Weapons recovered in raid on madrassa in Uttar Pradesh, Bijnor! 6 clerics arrested! Worry is that Lmg machine gun has been found! Machine gun with the capacity to fire eight thousand rounds in a minute! Understand these People’s preparation! Wake up brothers.”
Investigation
To investigate this claim, we first resorted to keyword search. We foundd this news of raid in Bijnor madrassa at many places. But all these news were from 2019, not recent. In a news published on Jagran.com (Archive) on July 11, 2019, it was reported that the police raided a madrasa and a house on Kandla Road in Sherkot police station area of Bijnor. During this, nothing was found in the house, but the police have recovered a large quantity of weapons in the madrasa. The recovered weapon includes a pistol, two magazines, four pistols and some live cartridges. During this, the police detained six people, including the madrasa operator.
On reverse image search of the viral image, we found this image in a 2019 tweet on the Bijnor Police Verified handle. The tweet read, “06 accused arrested by police station Sherkot @bijnorpolice for smuggling illegal arms into the madrasa. 1 pistol, 04 kattas and a large quantity of cartridges were recovered.”
In the next phase of the investigation, Vishvas News spoke to Bijnor-based crime reporter Virender Deshwal of Dainik Jagran. He said, “The police had raided a madrasa in Sherkot in July 2019. During the raid, the police found a pistol, two magazines, four pistols and some cartridges during the search of the madrasa. The police detained six people from the madrasa. No machine gun was found in the raid.”
Vishvas News did a fact-check of one such post in 2020 as well. That news can be read by clicking here.
Finally, we checked the Facebook account which shared the misleading post. User Deepak Pandey is a resident of Nainital.
Conclusion: The viral post proved to be misleading in the investigation of Vishvas News. A raid was conducted in Bijnor’s madrassa on 10 July 2019. During that time one pistol, two magazines, four local pistols, and live cartridges were recovered and not advanced weapons or any machine gun were found. In our investigation, the viral post turned out to be misleading.
- Claim Review : Machine gun recovered in raids on madrassa in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor
- Claimed By : Facebook User Deepak Pandey
- Fact Check : Misleading
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