An image of Delhi Police personnel helping residents in a rescue operation in riot hit North East Delhi last week is viral with claims that the former aided rioters in entering the house of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councilor Tahir Hussain to frame him by planting petrol bombs and stones.
The image shows two police personnel atop atop a building, assisting men climb down with the help of two makeshift ladders.
The viral image is being shared with the misleading caption, "Delhi Police helping rioters enter Tahir Hussain's house through the roof by climbing it with a ladder so that petrol bombs, stones, catapult can be kept to frame him."
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(In Hindi - दिल्ली पुलिस दंगाईयों को पार्षद ताहिर हुसेन के घर के छत पर चढ़ने के लिये सीढ़ी लगाते हुए ताकि पैट्रोल बॉम्ब,गुलेल,स्टोन रख कर उसे फंसाया जा सके)
Viral on Facebook
We searched on Facebook with the same caption and found that the image is viral with the similar narrative.
Tahir Hussain has been accused of assembling goons at his residence who were reportedly pictured firing guns and throwing petrol bombs from the rooftop during the Delhi riots. Hussain has denied the same. Delhi Police registered an FIR against the AAP councilor in connection with the murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, whose body was pulled out of a drain near the Chandbagh locality, where he resided. Hussain was named in the FIR, filed in connection with the killing of Sharma. The party later suspended him from its primary membership.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM performed a reverse image search and found a video of the incident that was tweeted by AAP leader Sanjay Singh.
Singh had tweeted the video on February 26 applauding Delhi Police's action in rescuing the riot hit victims. The video has been captioned as, "Brave Delhi police officers protecting people in violence-hit Gawndi area of Delhi." In the video tweeted by Singh, police officers can be seen assisting people climb down a makeshift ladder, in a bid to escape.
The footage shows men using the ladder to escape, in the presence of policemen, as opposed to the viral claims which suggest that the ladder was used to climb and enter the building.
We found another video shot from a different angle from what appears to be the same spot, tweeted by a journalist, Kamaljit Sandhu, who identified the location as Shashtri Park. The video has been tweeted with the caption, "While Delhi Police has been facing heavy criticism on its dealing with #DelhiViolence. Here is a video of police personnel rescuing 13 persons during riots. Using a step ladder to reach civilians trapped. The video has been shot in Shastri Park, NE Delhi on 24th Feb."
In the 2 minute 20 second long footage, a ladder is being used by people to escape the building. Smoke comes out from behind the building, similar to the footage shared by Sanjay Singh.
Furthermore, the structure of the building is the same in both the videos. Policemen can be seen standing on a roof rescuing people with the makeshift ladder. The same roof, which has an extended part, can be seen in both the videos. BOOM could not independently verify the location of the video.
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