No, The Burqa Clad Woman In Delhi Bus Is Not A Child Kidnapper; Viral Claim Is False!

A video showing a person accusing a woman of child theft is going viral across social media. The video is going viral with the claim that a woman was caught stealing a child by the staff of a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus in Delhi's Bawana area.

Claim:

In the viral video, a man is recording a woman who is being accused of child theft. The man then shifts the camera to uniformed personnel holding a child, saying that this is the kidnapped child. Other people can be seen recording the woman as well. Netizens have claimed that a burqa-clad woman attempted to steal a child and was then caught and filmed.

A social media page, The Ritam App, shared the video with the following translated claim, "A burqa-clad woman turns out to be a child thief in Delhi's Bawana. DTC bus staff caught a woman wearing a burqa with a stolen child."

The video is viral on Facebook with the following translated claim, "A woman has been caught in Delhi's Bawana who was running away after stealing a child. All of you take care of your children, keep your children away from unknown persons."

Several other users circulated the claim as well.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the claim and found it to be false. We found that the rumours of child theft were false, as the woman in the video is the child's mother.

We found a longer version of the viral video and noticed several shops in the background. We noticed a 'Balaji Boot House' shop and conducted a keyword search for the same in Delhi's Bawana area.

We found the location of this shop on Just Dial's website, according to which the shop was located in Bawana, Delhi.

We conducted a keyword search for Shri Balaji Boot House on Google Maps and came across the street view of the area surrounding the shop. Through this street view, we found several shops that matched up with those seen in the viral video.

The visuals in the street view and the video match up, indicating that the incident did take place in Bawana, Delhi. In our Fact Check, we also came across a report in the Outer Delhi edition of Navbharat Times published on 15 September 2022.

As per the Navbharat Times report, a female resident of JJ Colony in outer Delhi's Bawana area was travelling in a bus with her child. Reportedly, she was mentally disturbed. When the child was troubling his mother during the bus journey, the mother angrily demanded the child to be quiet.

Upon seeing this, people on the bus began spreading rumours of child-lifting about the woman. As people gathered around her, she got very nervous, and some people started filming her and posting it on social media.

Taking a hint from it, we spoke to Rakesh Yadav, SHO Bawana. He stated that after the police investigated the matter, they found that the woman in the video was the child's mother. The child was handed over to the mother after that. He said, "The viral news is false news, and the child was her only. Not sure, but the incident happened about ten days ago. We have taken appropriate action against those spreading these rumours."

The Quint also spoke to the woman's brother-in-law Mohammed Nirale who said that she has two children, and the child in the video is hers. He also emphasised that the claim shared with the video was false.

Conclusion:

In our Fact Check, we confirmed that the video was shot in Delhi's Bawana area. However, we found that the rumours of child theft were false, as the woman in the video is the child's mother. After the required investigation, Delhi Police handed over the child to her. The woman was mentally unstable as well. Thus, we are able to ascertain that the viral claim is false.

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

Also Read: No, Patanjali Is Not Selling Beef Biryani Spices; Viral Images Is Edited!