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| - A video of three priests is going viral on social media to claim that they are actually Rohingya Muslims disguised as Hindu priests in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
The claim also states that they were allegedly caught while kidnapping a child.
Who shared it?: Along with several social media users, right-wing propaganda website Sudarshan News shared the same claim.
(Similar archives of these claims can be seen here and here.)
Is this claim true?: No, this claim is not true.
Meerut police have refuted the claims of Sudarshan News and clarified that they are not Muslims but belong to the Nath community of the Hindu religion.
The police also stated that these three were priests but they usually sat for begging. The police released the three men seen in the video after questioning.
How did we find out the truth?: We found Meerut Police's reply to the claim shared by Sudarshan News on X (formerly Twitter).
The police had clarified that this claim was false.
They also added that all three seen in the video are residents of Yamunanagar, Haryana and are "sadhus/fakirs" who belong to the Nath community of the Hindu religion and do the work of begging.
Taking a cue, we performed a relevant keyword search using 'three sadhus video Meerut' in Hindi on Google and this led us to reports by Navbharat Times, Aaj Tak, Indian Express and News18.
These reports stated that another video of the same priests being hit violently is also going viral on social media.
It added that people allegedly thrashed these three under the accusation of child theft, they were later handed over to the police, who found them innocent.
Clarification from the police: Later Meerut police clarified that the people who thrashed these priests were identified as Puneeth, Mickey, and Himanshu and were arrested.
The Quint's WebQoof team reached out to SP City, Ayush Vikram Singh who clarified that the communal claims being shared with the viral video are false.
"These sadhus have been identified. Their names are Gaurav, Gopi and Sunil. And all of them come from Nath community, they are residents of Darwa Majri village of Yamunanagar, Haryana," he added.
Conclusion: False communal angle has been added to a video of three priests from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
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