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| - Fact Check: Video of burqa-clad smuggler from Andhra FALSELY shared with communal spin amid Karnataka polls
Did Karnataka police arrest a burqa-clad man for pelting stones during the 2023 Assembly polls in the state? No. This video is neither new nor from the state.
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India Today Fact Check
This is a 2020 video from Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district. The burqa-clad man in this video was caught smuggling liquor from Telangana.
On May 10, amid Assembly elections in Karnataka, many shared a video of policemen asking a person to remove their burqa. Soon, it's revealed that under the veil was a man and not a woman. We then see the man squatting down with a bunch of other men.
Per many who shared the clip, this was from Karnataka. Tweets suggested, “He was pelting stones in Karnataka wearing a burqa to defame Muslims!”
Several others shared the same clip with similar claims in Hindi alongside hashtags like "Karnataka Assembly Election 2023". Archived versions of such posts can be seen here and here.
India Today's investigation found that the video is more than a couple of years old and not related to the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections at all.
Our Probe
Upon reverse-searching keyframes from the viral clip, we found an extended version of a similar video uploaded to the YouTube channel of ETV Andhra Pradesh on August 8, 2020, making it clear that the video is not recent.
There, the caption mentioned that several people were arrested by the police in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district following the recovery of illegal liquor in transit. Per the video’s description, the police recovered liquor bottles hidden inside their burqas.
We also came across another fact-check story by India Today from August 16, 2020, debunking the same video. At the time was falsely shared as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member getting arrested for waving the Pakistani flag while clad in a burqa, in order to defame Muslims.
At the time, India Today had reached out to Kurnool SP Fakkeerappa Kaginelli and ASP (Special Enforcement Bureau) Gowthami Sali, who confirmed the case was related to smuggling NDPL (non-duty paid liquor) from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh. The incident took place on August 7, 2020, and the accused were arrested.
Sali said that the burqa-clad man in this video was Md Aarif, who
was caught along with his partner Satish Goud in the process of bringing in liquor on a bike from Telangana.
Therefore, it is clear that this video has nothing to do with the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls.
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