Delhi Police has categorically denied media reports claiming that a speeding car had rammed into people offering namaz in the Khureji area of East Delhi causing injuries to at least 17 persons on Wednesday when Eid was being celebrated. News agency IANS had reported the incident, which was then picked up by various news publications.
The report by IANS had quoted a statement from Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shahadara, Meghna Yadav confirming the injury of 17 people in the incident. This report was further picked up by publications including The Quint, India Today, India TV and Business Standard making similar claims.
However, DCP Yadav has categorically denied making such claims. When OpIndia spoke to DCP Meghna Yadav to get a confirmation, she denied giving such a statement to any news agency and termed it a ‘lie’.
“They are all lying, whichever media portal is quoting my statement claiming 17 injuries. There is no one injured,” clarified DCP Yadav in conversation with Opindia. “Three people walked into the police station much later after the incident claiming they were injured. But there was no visible injury,” she further added.
All the three who claimed to have been injured were later sent for medical examination.
DCP Yadav divulged that the place where the incident happened usually remains crowded but no namaz was being offered at the time when a speeding car passed through the area. In fact, people who were offering the prayers had already dispersed by that time.
Incidentally, the claim of injury was picked up mostly by the English media, while some reports in the Hindi media had clarified that no one was injured and no car had hit people offering namaz on Eid day.
A report in Amar Ujala for example had carried the statement by Delhi police officer that no one was injured. The report further said that the crowd assembled for namaz had indulged in stone pelting to protest the speeding car, which they feared could have caused grievous injuries to the faithfuls.
Meanwhile, some videos claiming to have captured the violent protests by the namazis have gone viral on social media:
https://twitter.com/mssirsa/status/1136245040257179649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/KapilMishra_IND/status/1136289898686603270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw