Video of Arrest in Greater Noida Falsely Linked to Azamgarh's Durga Puja Case

The video shows police arresting a gang after a shootout in Greater Noida.

A video of police arresting members of an interstate gang in Greater Noida was falsely linked to the incident that took place in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video from Greater Noida is being shared with a false claim that it shows Azamgarh police arresting a man who brandished a gun at a Durga Puja pandal threatening to remove it.

The claim goes on to credit Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the successful arrest of the man and identifies him as one Adil aka Ansar Ahmad.

However, we found that this video shows the Greater Noida police arresting members of an interstate gang after a shootout in the area and none of those arrested were identified as 'Ansar Ahmad'.

However, it is true that the Azamgarh police had arrested one Ansar Ahmad aka Mintu on 14 October for waving an illegal gun at a Durga Puja pandal.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video mentioned that the video shows how Uttar Pradesh police arrested a person, one Adil aka Ansar Ahmad, for threatening to remove a Durga Puja pandal in Azamgarh with the help of a gun.

The video shared by Facebook user 'Banty Rajput' had garnered 30,000 views and over 600 shares at the time of writing the article.

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Several social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here, here, here, and here.

The video is viral on Facebook.

(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND

We divided the viral video into multiple keyframes using InVID and reverse searched them on Google. This led us to a tweet shared by ABP News Editor Pankaj Jha on 17 October.

The tweet carried the viral visuals and mentioned that four members of an interstate gang, which used to offer lift to people in a car and then rob them, were arrested by Noida Police.

A tweet shared on 17 October mentioned that the video shows Noida police.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

Further, as per a Hindustan Times report published on 18 October, the gang was famously know as 'screwdriver gang' and was arrested after a shootout in Sector Beta 2, Greater Noida.

Various cases have been registered against the members of the 'screwdriver gang' in Rajasthan, Mathura, and Delhi with at least 26 cases of robbery, the report added, attributing the information to the police.

The report mentioned that the accused had been identified as Anand Verma, Shiv Kumar Verma, Deepak Verma, and Bablu Verma.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Quint's WebQoof team, Vishal Pandey, the deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, also confirmed the names of the aforementioned accused and said, "This incident isn't linked to any Durga Puja pandal."

The official Twitter handle of Police Commissionerate Gautam Buddh Nagar had also tweeted images related to the incident and mentioned that they had recovered nearly Rs one lakh in cash, 17 screwdrivers, a car and illegal weapons from accused's possession.

WHAT ABOUT THE INCIDENT IN AZAMGARH?

We came across a tweet shared by Azamgarh Police on 14 October that mentioned that a person had been arrested for waving an illegal gun at a Durga Puja pandal in an area under the Tarwa police station.

Later on 14 October, in another tweet, Azamgarh Police identified the accused as one Ansar Ahmad aka Mintu.

Azamgarh police identified the accused as one Ansar Ahmad aka Mintu.

(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

Evidently, a video of police arresting members of an interstate gang in Greater Noida was falsely linked to the incident that took place in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

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