No, This Man Wasn’t Seen Spitting on Fruits in Delhi’s Bawana

ACP Bawana told The Quint that Dilshad alias Mehboob Ali had not tested positive for coronavirus yet.

A viral video falsely claimed that Muslims were injecting spit in fruits to spread coronavirus.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

CLAIM

A viral video on social media was shared with a claim that the man seen in the video was injecting his saliva in fruits amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The video is being shared with a communal claim that the man is a Muslim and people can be seen beating and questioning him if he had a plan to spread coronavirus.

The video is being shared with the text: “इंजेक्शन में थूंक भर भर कर फलों में लगा रहे थे मुस्लिम, वीडियो वायरल” (Translated: Muslims were injecting spit in fruits, video viral)

The video is being massively shared on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim.

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TRUE OF FALSE?

The video is from Delhi’s Bawana and the claim with which it is being shared is false. ACP Bawana told The Quint that the incident took place on 4 April and the man in the video, Dilshad alias Mehboob Ali was beaten up after he came back from Bhopal post attending a jamaat.

He further said that the man has not been tested positive for coronavirus yet.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We searched on YouTube using keywords “मुस्लिम कोरोना थूंक” and found video uploaded on 7 April with the caption: “Corona||बवाना से मिला है ये। थूक को इंजेक्शन से फ्रूट्स में भरकर कोरोना फैलाने की तैयारी थी” (Translated: Corona | This was found in Bawana. Wanted to spread coronavirus by injecting spit in fruits.)

The caption suggested that the video could be from Delhi’s Bawana.

Speaking to The Quint, ACP Bawana said that the claim being made along with the video is absolutely false and the incident took place on 4 April. “He was not injecting his spit on fruits as being claimed on social media,” the police official said.

“The man in the video has been identified as Dilshad alias Mehboob Ali and the incident took place a few days ago. He had gone to attend a jamaat in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal and returned back to Bawana. He was admitted to the LNJP Hospital in Delhi and has not been tested positive yet for COVID-19 yet.”

ACP Bawana

The ACP informed us that people who were beating him, have also been arrested.

We also got in touch with Delhi Police PRO Anil Mittal, who told The Quint that three people have been booked under Sections 323, 341, 506, 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

He further informed that even Mehboob Ali has been booked for violating the lockdown rules under Section 188 of IPC which deals with “disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant.”

The Quint had earlier reported about a viral video which showed a fruit seller allegedly spitting on the fruits that he was selling. It was found that the video was from MP’s Raisen district and was as old as 16 February.

An FIR had been registered against the man in question, Sheru. However, the fruit seller’s daughter had alleged that he was mentally challeneged. She further said that her father had a habit of counting money like that and that he was just sorting the fruits in the same way.

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