A screenshot of a tweet claiming the Muslim men are harassing the Hindu families outside the Quest Mall in Kolkata is doing the rounds on social media. Many users have shared the screenshot with a communal twist, alerting the Hindus in the state to stay cautious until the elections.
A Facebook user posted the viral post with the following caption: Important Allegedly six Muslim guys went to a family standing outside Quest Mall, waiting for the Uber and abducted their daughter. The guards didn’t do anything. Police avoided the case. Later they dropped back the girl in 2hrs. This happened around 1 am. Hindus living in Kolkata or visiting Kolkata shouldn’t go to the Quest Mall till elections. Families/women getting harassed especially at parking and adjacent. @KolkataPolice is doing nothing. I have heard of more than 4 incidents in last 10 days. Soon I will come with more details. Till then spread the msg.
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post, and found it to be false.
Running a Google Keyword Search of the viral claims, the NM team identified a tweet by Dr Bhola Nath Pandey, IPS, DCP, SED, Kolkata, dated March 24, 2024. Pandey clarifies in his tweet that the viral screenshots and messages are fake as no such incident has taken place in Kolkata.
In another tweet, in the same thread, he further clarifies that a criminal case has been initiated at Karaya PS over the issue and the authorities will take legal action against those responsible for spreading such rumours and fake messages.
Searching further, we came across another tweet by the same user as in the viral screenshot. Here the user has posted a picture of the complaint letter submitted to the police by the mall authorities. We can see in the letter that the authorities have clearly denied of any such incident around the mall and filed an FIR informing that the message is being spread with the “intention to provoke a serious breach of peace, law, and order, communal harmony as well as to promote hatred amongst people of different locality and religion, causing the feeling of enmity and hatred amongst different religious communities and different localities.”
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral post, claiming Muslim men are harassing and kidnapping Hindu families outside the Quest mall in Kolkata, is false.
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