A video of three sadhus being caught and asked to identify themselves in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut is circulating with false communal claims that they hid their Muslim identity.
The video was posted on X by Sudarshan News UP handle which amplified the claim further stating that one of the sadhu's name is Mohammed Shamim. According to Sudarshan News UP's X post, the three men falsely identified themselves as Hindus. The caption further claims, "Their Aadhaar Card says the name is Mohammed Shamim. Mohd. Shamim along with his gang used to do recce of Hindu localities wearing saffron clothes. The public also accused the three of stealing children."
Click here to view an archive of Sudarshan News UP's X post.
BOOM reached out to Meerut Police who dismissed any communal angle to the incident. Meerut Police told BOOM that the three sadhus belong to the Nath community and are residents of Haryana's Yamunanagar. People caught them on suspicion of child theft and beat them up.
The video is also circulating on Facebook with similar communal claims.
Click here for an archive of the post.
Fact Check
Upon searching with relevant keywords, we BOOM a report published by Aaj Tak on July 14. According to the report, the incident took place in Prahlad Nagar, Meerut, where three sadhus were beaten up on suspicions of being child kidnappers. After the video of the fight related to the incident went viral, the police took cognizance of the matter and arrested three accused named Puneet, Mickey and Sudhanshu.
Reports from TV 9 Bharatvarsh and News 18 stated that locals expressed suspicion about the identity of the sadhus. They assumed that they were Muslim child kidnappers and thus kept the three men as hostages and beat them up.
BOOM also came across quotes from Meerut Police which confirmed that the sadhus are not Muslims but from the Nath community.
Meerut Police also replied to Sudarshan News' X post and corroborated the same. According to the post, the sadhus were brought to the police station and upon interrogation, it was found that the three are residents of Yamunanagar, Haryana. They are fakir / sadhus who belong to the Nath community.
Meerut Police has also lodged a case against three men after video of them assaulting the sadhus emerged.
In a video released by the police, it was said that people of the Hindu community had caught three people on the suspicion of roaming around disguised as sadhus. The incident happened in Prahlad Nagar of Lisadi Gate police station. In another video it was said that "Three people have been arrested in connection with the viral video of assault on sadhus, whose names are Puneet, Mickey and Sudhanshu. All three of them are residents of Lisadi Gate."
Police stated that the reason for the fight was the three men were looking at a child, which raised suspicions among the locals.
We then reached out to Meerut Police. SP City, Ayush Vikram Singh told BOOM , "The communal claims being made regarding the incident are wrong. All three sadhus have been identified. Their names are Gaurav son of Bobby, Gopi son of Rishipal, Sunil son of Fakirnath. All three of them come from Nath community, they are residents of Darwa Majri village of Yamunanagar, Haryana. The local people and SHO there also confirmed this."
He further told BOOM, “After the first video surfaced, the police called the three sadhus and interrogated them and after some formalities they were released. After this, another video surfaced in which these sadhus are being badly beaten. Under this, a case was registered by the police under relevant sections and three people were arrested who were seen fighting in the video."