CLAIM
As violence in northeast Delhi spread across different parts of the city on Sunday, 23 February, with gunshots being fired on Monday in Delhi’s Jaffrabad, a video is doing the rounds on social media which claims that RSS “gangsters” are distributing guns in ghee boxes.
Some people are circulating the video on WhatsApp with the claim: “Guns are distributed by RSS to Hindutva terrorists to kill Muslims (sic)” The video shows people taking out pistols from ghee boxes.
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On YouTube, it is being shared with the claim that gun suppliers of the Delhi violence have been caught.
The Quint received a query about the claim made in the viral video on its WhatsApp helpline number.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
We searched on YouTube using keywords “guns put in ghee” and found a video that was uploaded on 27 September 2019 with the headline “DELHI में SMUGGLING, GHEE के डिब्बों में PISTOL.” (Translation: Smuggling in Delhi, guns hidden in ghee containers.) The video carried the same visuals as seen in the viral video.
We found an article published by NDTV on 26 September 2019 which mentioned that Delhi Police’s Special Cell had arrested two people from Ghazipur area. The accused had brought 26 pistols in ghee boxes.
The Hindu had also published an article on the same mentioning that two cans of ghee were recovered from a car and as many as “26 pistols of .32 bore calibre with magazines wrapped with polythenes and tied with cotton strings were found,” the report quoted a police official as saying.
The accused were identified as Jitender alias Jeetu (25), a resident of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, and Raj Bahadur (30), a resident of Agra, the police had then said, news agency PTI had reported.
Jitender, along with an associate, was arrested on 23 September 2019 from Ghazipur Road, where he was supposed to deliver illicit arms to a customer.
"During interrogation, Jitender revealed that in 2013, he started procuring weapons from Lili, a resident of Gormi, Bhind (MP), Prahlad, a resident of Bakshipura, Bhind (MP) and sold them in the nearby area," DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwaha had said, PTI reported.
Evidently, an old video is being circulated on social media to claim that RSS is distributing guns in ghee boxes to “kill Muslims.”
(With inputs from PTI)
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