| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Communal spin FALSELY added to 2022 Haldwani train incident after Balasore tragedy
Many have been claiming that a Muslim man tried to sabotage a train in Haldwani with a gas cylinder. But the incident happened in 2022 and the man was Hindu.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This incident is from 2022 and the man charged with endangering the lives of passengers was Hindu.
A video of a person pulling out the mangled remains of a gas cylinder from a train has been widely shared on social media. Allegedly, in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, a Muslim man threw a gas cylinder in front of a moving train. Those making the allegations linked it to the recent train accident in Balasore, Odisha, calling it a part of a larger conspiracy.
In the video, a person can be heard saying, “I have already informed the police and made a video of this incident. Let’s make it viral. I fail to understand how he dared to do this?” The archived version of a tweet containing the video can be seen here.
India Today found that not only was the incident not recent, but the man charged for this was also Hindu.
Our Probe
Using a keyword search, we found a tweet from the account “Railway Police Force North East Railways Izatnagar Division”, responding to a viral tweet. This tweet stated that this incident took place on July 5, 2022, and the name of the person accused in this case was Gangaram, adding that a case had been registered against him.
We also found that the Nainital police, too, had clarified on Facebook that this took place in 2022 and the accused in this case was arrested the same day.
India Today accessed a railway police press release of the incident, which stated that the train was the Lucknow Kathgodam Express train, and the incident took place between Lalkuan and Haldwani in Uttarakhand. The note named the accused Gangaram, the son of Biharilal, a resident of the Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh.
The accused was presented before the court on July 5, 2022. The court sent him to judicial custody. A case was filed against him in the Resub Police Chowki of Haldwani. He was released on bail on September 1, 2022.
To ascertain the religious identity of the accused, India Today spoke to Pankaj Bhatt, the Senior Superintendent Of Police of Nainital. Bhatt said that the only accused in this case was Gangaram, and he was a Hindu. He further said that no Muslim person was involved in this incident.
Bhatt also clarified what had happened. He said: “When the accused Gangaram was arrested in this case, he told police that he was carrying his cylinder for refilling and was crossing the railway tracks when suddenly the train arrived. He dropped the cylinder in haste.”
Rajendra Singh, the Public Relations Officer for the Izat Nagar Division in the North Eastern Railways, too, told India Today that the accused in this case was a man called Gangaram and that he was Hindu. Singh added that a case was immediately registered against him for endangering the lives of passengers.
It is noteworthy that following the tragic train accident in Odisha, there have been multiple attempts to add a false communal spin to it. The Odisha police too has appealed to people to refrain from sharing communally-coloured posts on social media.
To sum it up, a 2022 incident was shared in connection with the Balasore tragedy with a false communal spin.
(With input from Ankit Sharma)
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)