Meats pieces thrown by Muslims outside temple in UP’s Hathras? Police debunks false claim

On February 13, one Navneet Gautam tweeted a video with the claim that Muslims are throwing pieces of meat outside a Hindu temple in ‘Nai ka Nagla’ neighbourhood of Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras. In the video, a lane is visible where dogs can be seen loitering around the “pieces of meat”. The tweet also had a rhetorical question – “how long will Hindus be treated like this?” Gautam’s tweet was retweeted over 2,700 times and watched over 38,000 times.

नाई का नगला मोहल्ला जनपद हाथरस में जहां मिश्रित आबादी रहती है वहां मुसलमानों द्वारा हिन्दुओ के पवित्र स्थल मंदिर के आसपास माँस के लोथड़े फेंके गए है
हिन्दुओ के मंदिरों के साथ ये व्यवहार आखिर कब तक ??@Banswal_IPS @dgpup @igrangeagra @digrangealigarh @Uppolice @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/xtplDOmzWl

— Navneet Gautam (@navnret) February 13, 2020

Many other users on Twitter and Facebook shared the video with the same claim. A website named ‘Haryana Ab Tak’ also reported the incident claiming that people are furious over meat thrown near a temple in Hathras.

Fact-check

Hathras Police tweeted a graphic in response to Gautam’s tweet and informed that a local municipality official visited the place where the said incident took place. It was found that things lying on the ground outside the temple were not pieces of meat but feathers of a chicken and other waste material that was thrown by a shopkeeper in a dustbin near the temple. The police said that street dogs in the locality pulled out the waste and spilt it all across the lane outside the temple. “Hathras police didn’t get any information about Muslims throwing pieces of meat near the Hindu religious place -translated,” states the clarification.

हाथरस पुलिस द्वारा उक्त खबर का खंडन किया जाता है। pic.twitter.com/Ov0O0thAKe

— HATHRAS POLICE (@hathraspolice) February 13, 2020

Despite the police statement, Gautam has not taken down his tweet.

Visual analysis

The bits and pieces lying on the lane are remains of chickens, meaning leftovers. This is clearly visible if one watches the video frame-by-frame. You can spot feathers and bones, not chunks of meat.

Moreover, at one point, a pile of garbage can be seen. After watching the video closely, it is observed that dogs must have torn open the pieces of meat placed inside a plastic bag from one place to another while pulling it out. A trail of garbage from that pile can be seen in the slow-downed version of the video attached below. The garbage spilt over in circular shape further indicates the manner in which the garbage was tron out of a plastic bag.

Alt News found that the claim about Muslims in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras throwing pieces of meat outside a Hindu religious place is false. The claim was rubbished by the Hathras police. We were also able to visually corroborate the police’s statement.