Did a Team of 2000 Rohingyas Kidnap Children to Sell or Kill Them?

The images are from Ratia in Haryana and the people seen in the images did not kidnap any children.

CLAIM

A set of images are circulating with the claim that 2000 Rohingyas are abducting children in India. Some do that to sell them, while the others to kill them, alleges the claim.

The claim reads: ‘सावधान पूरे हिन्दुस्तान में रोहिंग्या की 2000 लोगो की टीम आयी है जो बच्चों को उठा के ले जा रही है कोई बेचता है कोई बलि के लिये ले जाता है खुद देखो सुनो ओर ज्यादा से ज्यादा इसे फैलाओ’’

(Translation: Alert, a team of 2000 Rohingyas has come in India who kidnaps children. Some sell them, while others kill them. Watch yourself and listen and share it as much as you can)

The Quint received a query about the claim made in the images via its WhatsApp helpline.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The claim with which the images are being shared is false. The images are from Ratia in Haryana’s Fatehabad district and the people seen in the images did not kidnap any children.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We reverse-searched the images on Google and one of the searches led us to a video uploaded by ‘Bharat News Live 24’ on 5 August. The video is titled as ‘फ़तेहाबाद में बच्चे पकड़ने वाले गिरोह में से 2 मर्द औरत के भेस में पकडे गए’’ (Translation: two men dressed in woman’s attire were caught for kidnapping children in Fatehabad)

The description of the video suggests that it is from Raita in Haryana’s Fatehabad district. On watching the video, an official in Ratia police station told The Quint that while the incident did take place in Ratia, the claim along with it is incorrect.

“People suspected that these two had kidnapped children. Consequently, we called them for investigation and found out that they were not child-lifters. They are transgenders who were collecting chanda.”

An official in Ratia police station

SAME CLAIM, DIFFERENT VIDEO

Recently, a video showing a man dressed in a woman’s attire went viral with the same claim. He was questioned about details like how many members are there in his team, where are the children taken, where does he sell their kidney etc.

We found the same video with a different claim which suggested that the video is from Mauranipur. An official in the Mauranipur police station, which is located in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district, told The Quint that the man seen in the video had not kidnapped any children.

The villagers suspected that he is a child-lifter and beat him, the official added. On being alerted about the incident, the Mauranipur police called his parents who informed them that he was undergoing treatment in Gwalior as he is mentally disturbed.

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