Man destroying a toll booth with a bulldozer is a Hindu and not a Muslim!
The video showing a JCB driver smashing toll booths is a Hindu namely Dheeraj and he is arrested by the UP police
Claim
Driver of a Bulldozer, Mohammad Sajid Ali destroyed a toll booth in Hapur on the Delhi-Lucknow National Highway this morning on asking to pay toll charges. UP Police arrested Sajid within hours and gave him proper servicing
Rating
Explanation
A man is seen operating a JCB excavator in a shared one-minute, eight-second video. The location resembles a toll booth. We also observe that he uses his bulldozer to demolish the cabins in the toll zones. Someone is using his mobile camera to record this in the interim.
This post is shared with a claim stating, “Driver of a Bulldozer, Mohammad Sajid Ali destroyed a toll booth in Hapur on the Delhi-Lucknow National Highway this morning on asking to pay toll charges.” You can view a similar claim post here.
Driver of a Bulldozer, Mohammad Sajid Ali destroyed a toll booth in Hapur on the Delhi-Lucknow National Highway this morning on asking to pay toll charges
UP Police arrests Sajid within hours and gave him proper servicing pic.twitter.com/gy2068AIAf
— Ashish Kumar (@BaapofOption) June 11, 2024
What’s the truth?
Using a relevant Google search, such as “A man destroying a toll booth with a JCB in UP is arrested,” we began our analysis. This brought us to an Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur police department tweet dated yesterday.
A note is shared on the X post, along with a photo of the man who smashed the booth along with some police officers. According to the post shared it read “Police team of Pilkhuwa Police Station and Garhmukteshwar Police Station took joint action and arrested a JCB driver at Chhijarsi Toll Plaza, who had vandalized the toll booth with the JCB and injured people in a road accident, along with the JCB used in the incident, within a short time.”
थाना पिलखुवा व थाना गढमुक्तेश्वर पुलिस टीम ने संयुक्त कार्यवाही कर छिजारसी टोल प्लाजा पर एक जेसीबी चालक द्वारा जेसीबी से टोल बूथ में तोड़फोड़ व सडक दुर्घटना में लोगों को घायल करने वाले जेसीबी चालक को अल्प समय में घटना में प्रयुक्त जेसीबी सहित किया गिरफ्तार।
.@Uppolice pic.twitter.com/JcqfmnUQxl— HAPUR POLICE (@hapurpolice) June 11, 2024
Using this as a hint, we conducted more research and discovered an additional X post by The Times of India dated June 11, 2024. A video of the police conversing on the ANI mic is attached to the post.
The post is captioned “Hapur, Uttar Pradesh: On the incident of a toll booth vandalized by a JCB driver, SP Hapur Abhishek Verma says, “JCB driver has been arrested by Hapur police. JCB driver’s name is Dheeraj and he hails from Budaun district…He works as a laborer and was drunk…The JCB has been seized…The case under appropriate sections of IPC has been registered against the driver…”
#WATCH | Hapur, Uttar Pradesh: On the incident of a toll booth vandalized by a JCB driver, SP Hapur Abhishek Verma says, “JCB driver has been arrested by Hapur police. JCB driver’s name is Dheeraj and he hails from Budaun district…He works as a labourer and was drunk…The JCB… pic.twitter.com/ZBWt4DsbEd
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) June 11, 2024
Additionally, we overhear the policeman describing the events and how they intervened right away to apprehend the driver and take the JCB.
With the help of all this information, it is confirmed that the driver, Dheeraj, who smashed the toll booth is Hindu and not Sajid, a Muslim as the viral claim suggests.
Furthermore, the driver’s name, Dheeraj, was mentioned in a few papers that covered this terrible event. You may read those pieces here and here.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude that the widely circulated rumor that Mohammad Sajid Ali, a bulldozer operator, smashed a toll booth in Hapur on the Delhi–Lucknow National Highway is false and misleading.
The story is accurate in actuality, however, the driver’s name is Dheeraj and he is a Hindu, not a Muslim, as is implied.
