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| - Fact Check: Who's this man putting his foot on a Hindu idol?
A disturbing picture of a man putting his left foot on a Hindu idol is circulating on Facebook with the claim that his name is Mohammad Ansari.
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India Today Fact Check
The man was identified was Azad Kumar Gautam, a resident of Kardhana village in Varanasi. He was arrested and sent to jail for hurting religious sentiments.
A disturbing picture of a man putting his left foot on a Hindu idol is circulating on Facebook with the claim that his name is Mohammad Ansari.
Several Facebook users have posted the picture () with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "Make this Muslim man, Mohammad Ansari, so famous that he never dares to step in a temple again."
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the viral claim to be misleading. The man was identified as Azad Kumar Gautam, a resident of Kardhana village in Varanasi. He was arrested on April 24 and sent to jail by Mirzamurad police for hurting religious sentiments.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here and here.
With the help of reverse image search, we found that a couple of users had tweeted the picture in May. Among them was "Neeraj Dwivedi", who'd tweeted the picture on May 11, tagging Varanasi and Uttar Pradesh police. The user had written that the man is a resident of Kardhana village in Varanasi under Mirzamurad police station, and a member of the Bhim Army.
@varanasipolice @Uppolice @IgRangeVaranasi @PrayagrajWale pic.twitter.com/BSCDkReNlC — (@NEERAJD811) May 11, 2020
The official Twitter handle of ADG, Varanasi zone, replied to the tweet, saying police had already taken action on the matter and the man was sent to jail. Replying to the same query by another user, Varanasi police said action against the accused was taken by Mirzamurad police on April 24.
The same incident was reported by Hindi news website "Amar Ujala" on April 24. According to the report, Azad Gautam had put his foot on the idol in the village temple and posted the picture on Facebook. Villagers lodged a complaint, following which police arrested him and seized his phone.
Hence, the viral post claiming that the man seen putting his foot on an idol is a Muslim named Mohammad Ansari is wrong. The man was identified as Azad Kumar Gautam, a resident of Varanasi district. He was arrested for hurting religious sentiments.
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