RSS Man Seen Waving Pak Flag? No, It’s an Incident of Bootlegging

We found out that several men were caught by Kurnool police for transporting liquor by wearing burqas.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of a man wearing a burqa is being shared with a misleading claim that he was waving Pakistan’s national flag and that he belongs to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The man, in the company of the police, can be seen removing his burqa.

However, we found out that two men were caught by Kurnool police for transporting liquor donning burqas. The case has no connection to the RSS.

CLAIM

The claim is being shared by various users on Twitter and Facebook with the peg that the man, seen in the video, was caught by the cops for waving Pakistan’s flag by wearing a burqa. The claim further goes on to add that he belongs to the RSS.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On going through the comments of one of the tweets, we saw a comment which said that the people in the video were speaking in Telugu.

(Source: Twitter)

We then searched on YouTube with the keywords ‘Man Burqa arrested Andhra Pradesh’ and came across a news report on ETV Andhra Pradesh uploaded on 7 August 2020.

The description of the report read, “Several Arrested | for Transfer Illegal Liquor with Wearing Burqa | at Kurnool Dist (sic).”

(Source: YouTube)

The bulletin mentioned that the pillion rider wore a burqa, but when the police checked their bags they found liquor bottles. We also spoke to the Kurnool superintendent of police (SP) who corroborated these details.

Clearly, an unrelated incident is being shared with a completely misleading claim.

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