False claim of Yati Narsinghanand's arrest shared online - Alt News
Abhishek Kumar
1st May 2021 / 7:51 pm
BJP supporter Sanjay Dixit (@Sanjay_Dixit) recently tweeted, “Yeti Narasimhananda Saraswati has been arrested by police” while Maulana Saad roams free. The tweet garnered 1,900 retweets and more than 4,000 likes at the time of writing. (Archive link)
He also shared a YouTube video while retweeting his own post. The accompanying text read, “Narsinghanad Saraswati arrested? Hear him yourself. Will the Uttar Pradesh police have the courage to arrest those who gathered in large numbers and shouted slogans about beheading him? The goons at the Delhi border cannot be touched. Shame on you! ” Although the tweet has now been deleted, you can find its archived version here.
In the video, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati is sitting in a car and saying, “The police have arrested me today from Shahjahanpur. These are all police vehicles you see behind me and in front of me. These people cannot arrest Maulana Saad. They cannot arrest any Muslim. They will only display their power in front of me because I am weak. Hindus need to be aware, they won’t get time tomorrow. I am here today, gone tomorrow. It is not a big deal whether I live or not. But these Muslims will eat your children.”
Sharing the clip, a user named @IamNotSecular claimed that Saraswati was recently arrested for “quoting the Quran”. It is noteworthy that Delhi police had recently filed an FIR against Saraswati for allegedly making inflammatory remarks against Islam and Prophet Muhammed at the press club of India.
Several other Twitter users (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) also shared the news of Saraswati’s arrest.
Several YouTube channels also reported about the arrest. These videos together amassed more than 95,000 views. (1, 2, 3)
The news of Yati Narsinghanad Sarwasti’s arrest is old. Replying to Sanjay Dixit’s tweet, he himself wrote, “Hail Mahadev Mr Sanjay, I am absolutely fine. There has been no arrest.” It is noteworthy that Saraswati’s account was suspended by Twitter at the time of writing.
Shahjahanpur police also replied to Sanjay Dixit’s tweet with a clarification that read, “Shahjahanpur police has not taken any such action/ made such an arrest. The allegations made in the viral video are not related to Shahjahanpur police. These are completely misleading, the Shahjahanpur police condemns them.”
On July 30, 2020, Dainik Jagran reported that Shahjahanpur police stopped Narsinghanand Saraswati while he was travelling to Ayodhya. Along with his supporters, Saraswati was on his way to Ayodhya to protest against the National Muslim Forum’s Chhattisgarh native Faiz participating in the Bhoomi Poojan ceremony of the Ram Temple. He was detained in Shahjahanpur and sent back to Ghaziabad. The video in circulation is related to this incident.
Sanjay Dixit later posted a tweet acknowledging that he shared an old video.
pic.twitter.com/QCI2nFRcgx
— Sanjay Dixit ಸಂಜಯ್ ದೀಕ್ಷಿತ್ संजय दीक्षित (@Sanjay_Dixit) April 28, 2021
Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati has therefore not been arrested. The viral video pertains to an old incident when he wasn’t arrested but stopped by the police.
Abhishek is a senior fact-checking journalist and researcher at Alt News. He has a keen interest in information verification and technology. He is always eager to learn new skills, explore new OSINT tools and techniques. Prior to joining Alt News, he worked in the field of content development and analysis with a major focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
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