CLAIM
A viral post on social media claims that a Muslim taxi driver has killed nearly 250 people in Meerut in the past four months.
The story has been reported by portals like India Rag Hindi, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and Hindu Existence with a narrative that the passengers this driver killed were “mostly non-Muslims and obviously from Hindu community.”
The story has also found its way to Facebook where it is being shared by multiple users.
TRUE OR FALSE?
This case which is being reported as a recent event is nearly 12 years old. A simple Google search with the words “Meerut Muslim driver 250 killed” throws up some news articles on the incident which dates as far back as 2007.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT?
1. An Old Incident Being Passed off as a Recent Event
The Quint also spoke to SP City, Meerut, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, who denied of any such incident in the past three months.
“I can tell you that no such incident has happened in the past three months. It would have been a big case if this would have happened,” Singh added.
During our investigation, we also found out a news article published by Times of India on 30 March, 2007 stating that the crime wasn’t carried out by just one person, but a gang of 35 people which was busted for killing nearly 250 people between 2003 and 2007.
One of the members of the gang was identified as Salim who had revealed that a group of taxi drivers from Bahraich resorted to killing passengers and robbing them.
As per this report, this gang killed a nearly 250 people, and doesn’t mention that they killed “Hindu people” as claimed by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
We also found another news report published by News18 on the same date (30 March 2007) which mentions that a taxi driver identified as Salim was arrested for killing 250 people in four months. However, that article has now been taken down and the page shows a 404 error.
2. NEWS WRONGLY ATTRIBUTED TO A SENIOR COP
The recently published reports by India Rag Hindi and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti quote a senior Meerut cop Dipesh Juneja in the article.
However, he isn’t the Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police. He was the SSP back in 2007 and the position is currently held by Nitin Yadav.
The Quint tried to get in touch with the office of Dipesh Juneja but he was unavailable to comment on the matter. This story will be updated if and when he responds.
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