Lighthouse Journalism came across a post being widely shared on social media platforms. The post was initially published by X user Sudarshan News. The video showed three men dressed as Sadhus being interrogated on camera. It was claimed along with the post that Meerut police had detained these men and when asked their names did not match that of their card. These men dressed up as Hindu sadhus were originally Mulims and were accused of kidnapping kids. During the investigation we found the viral claim to be false. Meerut police too had clarified about the same.
Claim:
X user Sudarshan News shared the viral video along with false claims.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the same video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by checking the comment section of the post made by Sudarshan News.
We found a reply from the official account of Meerut Police on the same post.
The post mentioned (translation): The information about hostage taking and beating is false. Police reached the spot and brought the three sadhus to the police station. On enquiry, it was found that all three are residents of Yamunanagar (Haryana) and are sadhus/fakirs who belong to the Nath community.
We then found a video posted on the profile of Meerut police, where they explained the entire incident.
We also found a report that mentioned that these three sadhus were also beaten by people on suspicion of them being Muslims and kidnappers.
In a news report on Dainik Bhaskar, these three sadhus were informed to be of Nath Sampradaya, they were detained and released later.
We also found reports about the same in Amar Ujala and Navbharat Times.
Conclusion: Video of Hindu sadhus from Nath sampradaya detained and released by Meerut police after confirming their identity is going viral with false claims. The sadhus seen in the video are not Muslims. Viral claims are false.
