A recording of a CCTV footage showing a person walking on a street at night is viral with a false claim that it shows a Muslim militant openly roaming with an AK-47 assault rifle in West Bengal's Malda district.
BOOM spoke to Sambhav Jain, Additional Superintendent of Police, Malda district, who confirmed that the claim is false and that the man in the video is an electrician carrying his tools.
The 18-second long video is a recording of a CCTV footage taken at night. The blurry video shows a man in a white T-shirt walking with an object in his hand.
The video was shared by a verified X handle with a caption, "Around 11 PM, an individual was spotted roaming the Hindu area of Millki, Malda, possibly armed with an AK-47. This isn’t the first time locals have raised alarms about jihadi activity in the region. Yet, local authorities seem to be downplaying the presence of Ansarulla Bangla networks in Malda. NIA India, HMO India, it’s high time this issue is addressed openly."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM reached out to Sambhav Jain, ASP, Malda district, to verify the viral claim with the video. Jain said the investigation found the machine in the man's hand is not an AK-47 but electrical tools.
"The claim is false. The police conducted a thorough inquiry and found that it was a local electrician carrying his tools, such as a drill machine. The CCTV footage shows the electrician on the night of April 25, 2025, around 11 pm, when he was carrying his tools."
When we inquired about the identity of the person, the ASP Jain said that the electrician is from the Muslim community, a local resident of the area, and not an outsider.
Jain also sent us two clips of a police officer speaking to locals who had filed a complaint. In the videos, one of the locals, named Abhijit Ghosh, can be heard saying that they assumed the person was carrying a gun and informed the police, as the footage did not clearly capture his face.
Later, the same person in the video confirmed that the individual was an electrician carrying a drill machine along with wires and was a resident of the area. Another local, Gopal Pathak, can also be heard confirming the same in the video.
The footages can be seen below.
Malda district police also shared a photo of the electrician with his electrical tools and called out the fake claim on their Facebook page. The post can be seen here.
In the photo posted by Malda District police, the electrician can be seen wearing the same white T-shirt and black striped trousers, carrying his work tools, as seen in the viral video.