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| - The Union rail ministry recently tweeted that two accused who pelted stones at the Vande Bharat Express from Gaya had been arrested. Social media users have since amplified the tweet and claimed that the accused were Muslims and their names were Shahid Hussain and Salman.
One among these users is BJP leader and lawyer Prashant Umrao. Responding to the railway ministry tweet, he had claimed that the two arrested individuals were named Shahid Hussain and Salman. (Archived link)
शाहिद हुसैन और सलमान
— Prashant Umrao (@ippatel) November 23, 2024
Jitendra Pratap Singh, a BJP supporter who has been found amplifying communal propaganda and misinformation several times in the past, shared the photo tweeted by the railway ministry and wrote, “Two criminals who pelted stones at the Vande Bharat Express, Shahid Hussain and Salman, have been arrested in Gaya.” (Archived link)
वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस पर पथराव करने वाले दो अपराधी शाहिद हुसैन और सलमान गया में गिरफ्तार! pic.twitter.com/h7Wvna2BWO
— 🇮🇳Jitendra pratap singh🇮🇳 (@jpsin1) November 23, 2024
Right-wing X user Raju Valmiki also amplified the claim. (Archived link)
✅वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस पर पथराव करने वाले दो अपराधी गया में गिरफ्तार!
✅आरोपियों के नाम कोई नहीं बताएगा। बुकमार्क कर लो
✅नाम है शाहिद हुसैन और सलमान
#ElectionResults pic.twitter.com/eZ5lfnv1Uk
— राजू वाल्मीकि (@raju_botana) November 23, 2024
These apart, many Right-wing handles like Sachin Tiwari, Arvind Mishra and others promoted the claim that the accused were Muslims.
Fact check
Alt News conducted a detailed investigation into the viral claims. The viral tweet from the Union railway ministry on November 22, 2024, did not mention the names of the arrested individuals or their religious backgrounds.
A reverse image search of the viral tweet led to a report published by Prabhat Khabar on November 17, 2024, which clarified the actual details of the arrests. According to the report, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Railway Police apprehended two youths, Manish alias Badal and Vikas alias Super, residents of Jawahar Nagar Adda in Manpur, for stone-pelting incidents involving the Patna-Tata and Gaya-Howrah Vande Bharat Express trains on November 16, 2024, around 3:40 PM.
This information was corroborated by the Prabhat Khabar e-paper on November 18, 2024.
It was also validated by a subsequent report by India Today dated November 23, 2024.
This makes it evident that the accused were named Manish and Vikas, and not Shahid Hussain and Salman.
In other words, Two individuals named Manish and Vikas, who pelted stones on the Vande Bharat Express, were wrongly identified by social media users as Shahid Hussain and Salman. In doing so, the incident was given a false communal angle.
Alt News has previously exposed numerous instances where communal claims were fabricated in the context of railway incidents (Fact-check report 1, Fact-check report 2, Fact-check report 3).
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