An old video of police personnel forcefully detaining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Raja Singh is being shared across social media platforms to claim that the incident happened in Hyderabad recently.
The claim further goes on to say that the only BJP legislator in Telangana, was arrested in Amberpet, Hyderabad last night on orders by the Commissioner of Police, as he was against people offering namaz on a road outside the temple.
However, we found that the incident occurred in 2019, after a mosque had been demolished by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for road widening purposes.
As per reports, the arrest took place after local Muslim groups had assembled at the site of a demolished mosque in protest and people from other outfits had gathered. In order to maintain peace and harmony, many of those present at the site were taken into preventative custody.
CLAIM
The Hindi text shared with the video claims that Raja Singh, the sole BJP MLA in Hyderabad, was arrested last night for protesting against local Muslims who were offering namaz on the road outside a temple.
It then notes that Hyderabad has plenty of mosques, adding that if the police can treat a sitting MLA in this manner, anything could happen with the Hindu population in the area.
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(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Using relevant keywords, we looked up reports on Raja Singh’s arrest and found no recent reports. However, we found a tweet by Singh’s verified Twitter account, dated 5 May, 2019.
In this tweet that carries the same visuals, Singh says that he was arrested by Hyderabad police for opposing the illegal construction of a mosque on the road in Amberpet.
Next, we looked for news reports from that time period using Google’s date filter and found an NDTV report regarding the same.
The report identified the police commissioner as Anjani Kumar and noted that many people had been taken into police custody after police personnel had reached the site of a demolished mosque to disperse the crowd gathered there.
It further stated that Singh had been taken into preventative custody.
In their report, The News Minute reported that a local Muslim body had called for people to offer prayers at the site of the demolished mosque in protest a day after the Commissioner had issued warnings against “unlawful gathering” at the site.
Kumar had stated that any attempt to “disturb the peace and tranquility” at the site of the demolished mosque in Amberpet would be “dealt with severely in accordance with law,” reported TNM.
As local Muslim groups had staged a protest at the site, the Commissioner had deployed police personnel in Amberpet to maintain the law and order situation. Speaking to ETV Telangana, Kumar had stated that the situation was brought under control.
Evidently, an old video of police personnel arresting BJP MLA Raja Singh in Amberpet, Hyderabad was shared as a recent one, with a false narrative.
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