In a recent tweet, BJP Yuva National Convenor Devang Dave claimed that the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) arrested two people, including a man named Abu Tahir, for illegal possession of 7 kg of uranium in Nagpada, Mumbai. Devang is also the founder of the Facebook page ‘I Support Narendra Modi’.

BJP supporter and advocate Prashant Patel Umrao also tweeted that the ATS apprehended two individuals, both purportedly Muslims, for illegal possession of uranium. He identified the two accused as Abu Tahir Afzal Hussain and Mohammad Jigar.

News Nation Consulting Editor Deepak Chaurasia identified one accused as Abu Tahir Afzal Hussain and the other as Jigar. Arun Pudur also posted a similar tweet, though he mentioned that the other accused’s name is Jagir.

Twitter user @MeghUpdates wrote that there were two accused, but named only Abu Tahir.

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The handle @PNRai1 quote-tweeted Chaurasia’s tweet, adding, “Uranium Jihad. Obviously, this wasn’t done out of good intentions. Good that these men were caught in Maharashtra, otherwise liberals and Congress supporters would have spun it as Hindus harassing Muslims.”

Facebook user Sunil Kumar Pandey claimed that three individuals were arrested in this case and all of them hailed from the Muslim community.

Misleading posts add a communal spin

On May 6, ATS officials reported the arrest of two people for illegal possession of 7 kg of uranium worth over Rs. 21 crores in Maharashtra. Uranium is a highly radioactive substance that can prove to be fatal if handled without proper care. India Today reported that on February 14, officials received a tip about a man named Jigar Pandya who was trying to sell pieces of uranium. The police arrested him on the same day. It was found during their investigation that he had obtained the uranium from a Mankhurd resident named Abu Tahir. The police immediately raided Tahir’s home and arrested him as well.

The Wire identified the second accused Abu Tahir as Abu Tahir Afzal Hussain Chaudhary. Meanwhile, News18 reported that his full name was Abu Tahir Hussain Chaudhary.

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This led to confusion. Since different media outlets reported different names of Abu Tahir, social media users began claiming that there were three accused and not two.

Furthermore, Twitter user @MeghUpdates did not mention Jigar Pandya’s name and Prashant Patel claimed his name was ‘Mohammed’ Jigar thus giving the incident an anti-Muslim spin.

Recently, Congress MLA Kunal Choudhary tweeted a photo purportedly of a child being taken to a temporary jail facility by the Indore police. The young boy can be seen holding some grocery staples like flour and oil. Choudhary wrote, “This child’s only crime was that he stepped out to get groceries for his family, and now he is being taken to a temporary jail. Shame on the Indore administration!” More than 5,600 handles retweeted the post. (Archive link)

Former MLA and Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee Satyanarayan Patel also posted the photo and viral claim. It had amassed over 1,200 shares at the time of writing.

Twitter user Shazia Tasneem wrote, “Madhya Pradesh: Indore, This boy is being taken to a temporary jail because he stepped out to buy groceries for his family. If he was in West Bengal, he would have received Rs. 500 to attend a rally.” This racked up over 900 retweets at the time of writing. (Archive link)

The image is widespread on both Facebook and Twitter with this caption.

A media portal called Newstrack even published a story on the incident.

Photo of boy in Delhi auto

A closer look at the viral image establishes that the boy is sitting inside an autorickshaw, and not a police vehicle. Those familiar with the tempos that run in several North Indian cities (or the Gramin Sewa transport vehicles in Delhi) would know that he is not sitting inside a police car.

Alt News performed a reverse image search and found no other versions of the photo apart from the one in the Newstrack article. Only social media posts appeared in the search results. A user had posted a screenshot of an Instagram post in reply to Shazia’s tweet and wrote that this claim was false.

The Instagram post is by the handle @inquallabi_soch. The caption discusses the lockdown in Delhi and the difficulties it brought for labourers.

We performed a keyword search on Facebook and Twitter using parts of the text from this caption. This led us to a number of Facebook posts, including one by Bharat Nbs. Several users attributed the image to Bharat. He had uploaded the photo on April 19 and we could not find any other post containing the picture before this date. In fact, a user commented on Bharat’s post informing him that the photo was viral with a false claim.

आज रात से दिल्ली में अगले सोमवार तक लॉकडाउन है। इस बच्चे को भी इस बात का इल्म है कि लॉकडाउन लगते ही, कोई सरकार कुछ नही…

Posted by Bharat Nbs on Monday, April 19, 2021

We reached out to Bharat and asked him if he had taken this picture. “I took this picture at Madhuban Chowk in Delhi. It was taken inside a Gramin Sewa vehicle. This boy was going towards Rithala, to his house. I spoke to him and he told me that he lived in Rithala. I took this picture of him during our conversation”, he revealed.

He shared the picture with us via email and an examination of its EXIF data confirmed that it was indeed taken by Bharat. He also shared a screenshot of his phone’s photo gallery. Bharat told us that through the photo, he was trying to show that the system had failed, and how no one was coming to the aid of the working class in such difficult times.

Therefore, a photo of a child in a Delhi auto was falsely circulated as the Indore police taking him to a temporary jail. It is noteworthy that those flouting lockdown rules in Indore are being taken into custody and placed in temporary jail facilities.