A video is viral where some youngsters can be seen picking up trashed passports from a paddy field alongside a village road. Social media users have shared this video with a caption in Hindi that says, “Looking at the way thousands of illegal Muslims were settled near Bet Dwarka in Gujarat, it can be inferred that there are hundreds of Kasabs in the country.”
Right Wing political activist Sadhvi Prachi, who is a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and president of the Hindutva outfit Bhagwa Kranti Sena, shared the video with the same claim on her Facebook page on March 28, 2023. The video got over 9.2 Million views and has been viral ever since.
जिस प्रकार गुजरात में बेट द्वारका के पास हजारों अवैध मुसलमान बसे थे उस आधार पर अंदाजा लगाया जा सकता है कि देश में सैकड़ों कसाब बसाए जा चुके हैं –
हमको एक प्रण लेना होगा की हम हिंदू राष्ट्र बनाकर रहेंगे और इसमें आप सहयोग कीजिए बागेश्वर धाम सरकार इस ग्रुप से जुड़िये और अपने मित्रों को जोड़िए वहाँ अपने विचार रखिए ग्रुप से जुड़ने के लिए 👉
अगर आप कट्टर सनातनी है तो आप सभी ग्रुप से जुड़ सकते है
ग्रुप से जुड़ने के लिए नीचे लिंक पर क्लिक कर सकते हैhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/939179403881272/?ref=share_group_link
Posted by Sadhvi Prachi on Tuesday, 28 March 2023
A Twitter user named Satya Sanatan Official shared the video with the same caption. The tweet has over 13,000 views at the moment.
#AmritpalSinghExposed
जिस प्रकार गुजरात में बेट द्वारका के पास हजारों अवैध मुसलमान बसे थे उस आधार पर अंदाजा लगाया जा सकता है कि देश में सैकड़ों कसाब बसाए जा चुके हैं – @AchAnkurArya जी (23-03-2023)
देश में बडे हमलों के एक साथ अंजाम देने की कुछ तो बडी तैयारी चल रही है।
सावधान रहे pic.twitter.com/KY2kBTxZpH— Satya Sanatan Official (@SatyaSanatanYt) March 26, 2023
Another Twitter handle, @bageshwarBaba, shared the video with the same claim. This tweet has over 10,000 views at the moment.
जिस प्रकार गुजरात में बेट द्वारका के पास हजारों अवैध मुसलमान बसे थे उस आधार पर अंदाजा लगाया जा सकता है कि देश में सैकड़ों कसाब बसाए जा चुके है pic.twitter.com/GMhd7HUmJG
— बाबा बागेश्वर धाम समर्थक (@bageshwerBaba) March 28, 2023
Several other Right Wing Twitter handles such as @shribhagavasena, @Eagle__View, and @Kamlesh14221399, also shared this video with the same captions, claiming that there were illegal Muslim residents living near Bet Dwarka in Gujarat.
Fact Check
By breaking down the video using the InVid, and reverse-searching one of the key frames, Alt News found several news reports from March 2018. These reports include ones by The Times of India, The Tribune, the Hindustan Times, and Jagran.
The Tribune reported that 258 passports were found abandoned on the roadside from Chakerian to Lakranwali village in Kalanwali area of Sirsa district in Haryana. It quoted Om Parkash, the SHO of the Kalanwali police station who went to the site and recovered the documents, as saying that the passports were of current validity.
Punjab Kesari published a web report with screen-grabs of the viral video dated March 10, 2018.
The Tribune contacted the then SHO of Kalanwali Police Station, Mr. Om Prakash, and discovered facts regarding the incident.
Alt News came across a detailed report from a local online news channel named The Sadaknama on YouTube. The reporter in the video visited the Kalanwali police station and interacted with the people to whom these passports belonged. One of them says that he had given his passport and some money to an agent for getting a visa. After a few days the company was shut down.
At 3:38 in the video, SHO Om Prakash appears in front of the camera to explain the entire case.
He says, ”On March 10, 2018, we were informed that several passports were found near Chakeria village. These were promptly seized by police. Now, I got to know from people from Ludhiana (Punjab) that there was a company named SSO Pvt Ltd which dealt in visas. After they had published an advertisement in newspapers, people submitted their passports to the company. After some time, there was some goof-up regarding an applicant’s visa and the company closed its office. After that, the company informed local police that some passports were missing. We have confiscated these passports and will take further action according to the laws.”
Therefore, it is clear from the news reports and police statement that the viral clip of passports being found on the roadside is an old video from Sirsa district of Haryana. The incident is from 2018. The claim that these prove the illegal settlement of Muslims in Gujarat is baseless and false.
Vansh Shah is an intern with Alt News.
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