Haldwani Land Row: No, Congress Member Imran Pratapgarhi Did Not Call For Destruction Of Goddess Durga Temple

Following the Supreme Court's directive in the Haldwani land encroachment case, many discussions have emerged across social media. A viral video was shared by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat showing a member of the Congress party with the viral claim that this Congress party worker wants to remove a temple of Goddess Durga.

On January 5, the Supreme Court stayed the eviction of nearly 50,000 people living on 29 acres of land that the Railways claimed was its property. "There cannot be uprooting of 50,000 people overnight... It's a human issue; some workable solution needs to be found," the Supreme Court said.

Claim:

The video shows Imran Pratapgarhi, a member of Congress, singing a short phrase, "Don't die like a coward…Hey, people of our faith die while protesting against crime and injustice…If a pack of wolves surrounds you…if you are going to die, better kill at least four or six of them before dying."

The viral tweet includes screenshots of a Twitter thread by Pratapgarhi on the Haldwani case noting the buildings such as houses, mosques, and a 50-year-old temple of the Goddess Durga are set to be destroyed.

The tweet containing the video and screenshots was published by Ajay Sehrawat, a Delhi BJP spokesperson and media in-charge of the BJP's OBC Morcha, with the caption, "Illegal encroachment was removed on the order of the court in Haldwani, then Rahul Gandhi's close friend Imran Pratapgarhi is saying that Durga Maa's temple should also be removed."

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian Fact-Check team verified the viral claim and found it false. The viral video is almost three years old.

We went through Imran Pratapgrahi's Twitter handle and came across a Twitter thread shared by the Congress member on January 1, 2023. In the tweet, Pratapgrahi shared an image of the protestor at the Haldwani land encroachment site.

He captioned his tweet, "In Haldwani, in the name of removal of encroachment by the railways, if there is an action to destroy the settlement, then 4365 houses, 50 years old temple of Durga Mata, Sahu Dharamshala, 70 years old Shivgopal temple, about 8 to 10 mosques, two government inter colleges, two primary schools (one dating back to the British era), one junior high school, half a dozen private schools, one primary hospital, a sewer line of built in the 1970s, the community building of the present BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation built in the year 2000 in the Congress government and an overhead tank will be destroyed."

We then used InVid's Keyframe Analysis Tool to isolate the keyframes of the viral video. Then we conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes, which threw up a video uploaded on the YouTube channel, 'One Channel,' published on August 5, 2019.

In the video titled, 'Imran Pratapgarhi's new poem on mob lynching at All India Mushaira in Nanded,' the part seen in the viral video begins at the 4.43 mark of the over 33 minutes video. The video's description reads, On August 4, 2019, Imran Pratapgarhi delivered a poem on mob lynching and Kashmir issues. The program was organized by Congress party Nanded."

In the video, references can be heard to the mob lynching carried out against persons from the Muslim community in 2019. Pratapgarhi can be heard loudly decrying the acts of lynching in his performance.

Shehzad Poonawalla, the BJP spokesperson, had also shared a snippet of Pratapgarhi's performance, heard in the viral video. Poonawalla shared it in a tweet on June 17, 2021, with the caption, "Hear how he incites Muslims to kill 4-6 People to avenge Lynching!"

These indicate that the viral video is not connected to the recent incident of the Haldwani land encroachment case.

On January 5, 2023, Pratapgarhi shared an image with the caption, "This is the victory of justice, the victory of humanity. The roof will not be snatched from the people of Haldwani, children's schools will not be destroyed, hospitals will not be destroyed, and temples, mosques, and Dharamshala will not be destroyed. Thank you, honorable supreme court."

Conclusion:

Our investigation showed that the viral video dates back at least three years and is unrelated to the recent Haldwani land encroachment case. It is also apparent that Imran Pratapgarhi was not demanding the removal of the temple of Goddess Durga, located near the disputed area.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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