On March 28, 2023, a video went viral on social media that showed an old Muslim man wearing a skull cap arguing with a woman who appeared to be an officer in charge. In the video, a bulldozer could be seen in the background, seemingly ready to demolish some kind of structure.
However, AIMIM corporator Mohammed Naseeruddin shared the alleged video, claiming that officers in Uttar Pradesh were not obeying court orders and wearing a fancy dress instead. According to Naseeruddin’s post, the man in the video claimed to have a court order, but the officer on site refused to obey it. He further added that there is a rule of bulldozer going on in UP and that rules and regulations are being flouted in UP.
Apart from this, some other Twitter handles like Tarik Choudhary, Adil Khan, and Shailesh Verma also shared the same alleged video and made similar claims.
This incident has raised questions about the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh and whether or not court orders are being followed or if is there really a rule of bulldozer going on in UP. Let’s Fact Check.
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Fact Check
During our investigation, we closely analyzed the viral video and noticed an important detail that raised some doubts. In the meantime, we noticed that at the 1 minute 52-second mark, the woman officer in charge can be heard speaking in Marathi, a language commonly spoken in Maharashtra. This detail raised questions about whether the video was really from Uttar Pradesh, as claimed by the above Twitter handles.
To further investigate this, we conducted a keyword search on Twitter using the term “demolition.” During this search, we came across a tweet by the Hinduphobic Ahmed Khabeer who is editor of The Jamia Times that shed light on the location of the incident. The tweet claimed that the video showed a Muslim man pleading with a BMC officer about the legal court paper he held, which should have been enough to stop the demolition of his property. The tweet also claimed that the man’s pleas fell on deaf ears, highlighting the plight of Muslims in the largest democracy.
Since Ahmed Khabeer mentioned BMC in his tweet, we decided to investigate the official Twitter handle of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). We came across a response from the BMC to a propaganda journalist of Newsclick Zakir Ali Tyagi who had also shared the alleged video and made similar claims to Ahmed Khabeer. The response from the BMC shed further light on the incident in question.
According to the BMC’s response, six illegal stalls made up of iron tin sheets were found in an acquired setback area of the BMC at K. D. Marg and 2nd Gaothan Lane Junction, near Santacruz Station in Santacruz (West) on the night of March 20, 2023. The BMC took action to demolish these illegally constructed stalls on March 21, 2023, with police protection and under the authority of the @mybmcWardHW. The response from the BMC further stated that there were no restraining legal orders from the Hon’ble Court regarding these six illegal stalls.
Besides, this response from the BMC provides important context to the incident captured in the viral video. It suggests that the man in the video was arguing against the demolition of the six illegal stalls, which were not authorized to be constructed in the first place. It also highlights the fact that there were no legal orders preventing the BMC from taking action to demolish these stalls.
Thus, the viral video may have sparked a controversy and raised concerns about the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh, our investigation has revealed that the incident in question actually took place in Maharashtra and involved the demolition of six illegal stalls.
So, all the points prove that the claims made by Mohammed Naseeruddin, Tarik Choudhary, Adil Khan, and Shailesh Verma are false and misleading.
| Claim | Officers in UP don’t obey court orders and the rule of bulldozer is going on in the state |
| Claimed by | Mohammed Naseeruddin, Tarik Choudhary, Adil Khan, and Shailesh Verma. |
| Fact Check | False and Misleading |
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