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| - Fact Check: NOT Mira Road, video of man vandalising Lord Ram statue is from Ayodhya
On January 20, during the Amrit Mahotsav event in Ayodhya, Mukhtar Ali climbed Lord Ram's statue in a drunken state and attempted to vandalise it.
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India Today Fact Check
This incident happened in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya.
A video of a man climbing atop a giant statue of Lord Ram and attempting to vandalise it is going viral on social media. Allegedly, this incident happened in Thane’s Mira Road, where communal tensions escalated in the aftermath of the consecration ceremony at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
Some tagged Mumbai Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Mumbai Police on X, inquiring if any action had been taken. The archives of two such posts can be seen here and here.
India Today found that this incident took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya.
Our Probe
We found that several people had also shared the video on social media claiming this happened in Ayodhya, with some also alleging that it was during the Amrit Mahotsav event. A keyword search with relevant keywords led us to a video shared by Hindu spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya on his official Facebook page. The idol of Lord Ram in this video was the same as the one in the viral video.
We also found a Navbharat Times photo story related to the Amrit Mahotsav published on January 18. This story too featured the same idol.
The Amrit Mahotsav was held in Ayodhya from January 14 to 22 celebrating Jagadguru Rambhadracharya’s 75th birthday. The viral video's idol was part of a theme park inspired by the “Ramcharitamanas” at the Mahotsav venue.
This proved that the incident was not from Mira Road in Thane.
Eyewitness account
We came across a video shared on Instagram which showed the vandalism incident, shot from a different angle. It was attributed to the Instagram account “vloggershiva”. This account is run by Vaibhav Srivastava based in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Srivastava shared a vlog about the Amrit Mahotsav on his YouTube on January 25. The vlog ends with a longer version of the incident, in which, the miscreant could be seen being thrashed by the attendees.
In this video, we also observed several with “UP Police” written on their uniforms. A board with “Ayodhya” written on it was also visible.
India Today reached out to Srivastava, who said that this incident happened in his presence and he had captured it on camera. He shared a screenshot of the video’s metadata, which confirmed that it was filmed on January 20 in Ayodhya at 9.25 pm.
Srivastava shared with India Today another video of this incident in which the man can be seen climbing the idol from behind.
Who was the man?
Rahul Srivastava, Uttar Pradesh Police’s social media cell in-charge, told India Today that the man vandalising the idol in the viral video was Mukhtar Ali Mondal.
He said that on January 20, during the Amrit Mahotsav event, Mukhtar Ali climbed Lord Ram’s idol in a drunken state, adding that on January 24, when a person named Nirmal Kumar Pandey tried to explain to him that he shouldn’t have done such a thing, Mukhtar Ali said that “he did it knowingly, as he wanted to seek revenge for the destruction of the Babri Masjid.”
Rahul Srivastava further said that Mukhtar Ali then attacked Pandey with a knife, following which, he was arrested and sent to jail.
Thus, it is clear that this incident did not happen in Thane’s Mira Road but in Ayodhya.
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