A video is being widely shared on social media in which two boys are seen boasting that they will burn down the mountain into ashes, while a forest fire rages on in the background.
The video is shared with the claim that the boys in the videos are Muslims and they deliberately started the fire in the video which has engulfed an Uttarakhand forest.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “Mohammad Mosar Alam, Mohammad Najefar Alam, Mohammad Nurul, Mohammad Salim and Mohammad Firoz Alam have been identified as accused for setting fire to a forest of Uttarakhand. They used to work as labourers here. They were caught red-handed by the forest department while setting fire to the forest. This is a new form of terrorism. (translated from Hindi)”
SouthCheck found the claim to be misleading. We found that the accused in the case were of different religions and there is no religious angle to the crime.
Using appropriate keywords, we found a report on India TV titled ‘Uttarakhand forest fire: Three people from Bihar arrested in Chamoli for promoting blaze.’
The report published on May 5, 2024, stated that ‘the Uttarakhand Police on Saturday (May 4) arrested three people from Bihar for allegedly promoting forest fires in the state.’
The report published on May 5, 2024, stated that ‘the Uttarakhand Police on Saturday (May 4) arrested three people from Bihar for allegedly promoting forest fires in the state.’
The report stated that the video that went viral showed three men hailing from Bihar proudly declaring that they started the fire in Uttarakhand. The report shared a tweet from the Uttarakhand police confirming that the viral video is from Panduwakhal and three youths from Bihar namely Brijesh Kumar, Salman and Shukhlal, accused of starting the fire, have been arrested.’
The report further quoted a police official who said that the accused were booked under section 26 of the Indian Forest Act of 1927 and several other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Chamoli police had also tweeted about the incident. The tweet reads, “Police took immediate action and arrested the three youths (1- Brijesh Kumar resident of Bihar, 2- Salman resident of Bihar, 3- Shukhlal resident of Bihar) and registered a case under Section 26 Indian Forest Act, 34,435,505 IPC and Section 34 of Public Property Damage Prevention Act at Gairsain Police Station. (sic)”
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim does not involve any communal angle.
