An old video from Hyderabad showing the arrests of several people is being linked to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (earlier Aurangabad) to claim that the police arrested the miscreants responsible for the clashes on Ram Navami.
BOOM found that the video is from August 2022, when the police arrested several people for protesting against the release of T Raja Singh, a former BJP MLA who was arrested for his offensive remarks against Prophet Mohammed.
On March 30, 2023, violence broke out between two groups in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar ahead of Ram Navami celebrations, leading to several injuries and the death of one 45-year-old Muslim man, Shaikh Muniroddin.
The video of the arrests is being shared in this context to show that the police arrested the miscreants by barging into their homes. The video is being shared with the text, "अगर छुआ मंदिर तो तुझे दिखा देंगे, हम तुझको तेरी औकात बता देंगे. छत्रपती संभाजीनगर"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from August 2022 in Hyderabad, when individuals protesting the early release of former BJP MLA Raja Singh were arrested by the police.
The caption of the Instagram post suggested that it was from Hyderabad, even though the text on the video read Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Taking a clue from this, we searched for the video using keywords such as "hyderabad police arrests protestors" and found a story by Siasat Daily which was a visual match to our video. Uploaded on August 25, 2022, the story explained how the police barged into the homes of Raja Singh's protestors.
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We searched for more reports with this new information and found a video uploaded by The News Minute on August 25 with the title, "Protesters demand BJP MLA Raja Singh's arrest in Hyderabad." The portion of the video beginning from 1:48 is a visual match to our viral video.
Raja Singh was arrested on August 22 for his derogatory remarks against the Prophet, but was released soon due to a procedural mistake made by the police. Following his release, crowds took to the streets of Old City in Hyderabad to demand his arrest. Paramilitary forces and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed along with the police to contain the crowd.
According to The Indian Express, fresh protests erupted in Charminar, Shalibanda, Moghalpura, Khilwat, and other areas of the city after Singh was released. The police also resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd outside Nampally court where Singh was being produced.
Notably, only two months before this incident, in June 2022, protests were held across the country including Telangana against Nupur Sharma, who was under fire for insulting the Prophet. The former BJP spokesperson had appeared on a television debate on May 27 when she had made the derogatory remarks. Some protestors in Hyderabad carried the Indian flag and replaced the Ashoka Chakra with a Kalma (six Islamic phrases recited by Muslims) as a display of their displeasure.