The Delhi Police on Friday, May 15, called out Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Parvesh Verma for spreading fake news on the microblogging site. Taking to Twitter, Delhi Police said, "This is totally false. An old video is being used with a malicious intent to spread rumour."
A post from the official Twitter account of DCP East Delhi also asked the BJP MP to verify before posting and spreading rumours.
However, minutes later, the tweet was taken down by the Delhi Police without any clarification.
Meanwhile, when International Business Times, India rechecked Parvesh Verma's Twitter account, the tweet was not visible. The BJP MP had to delete the viral tweet hours after posting it.
Video from March 20 goes viral
Parvesh Verma had tweeted a one-minute video that showed a group of Muslims offering namaz on the street. Verma's tweet was viewed over 14,000 times.
The video was reportedly from March 20. It was posted by Abhishek Dubey, IT and social media head of BJP Delhi, on March 20.
A 2-month-old video of Muslims praying in public in the national capital has been passed off as a recent happening by the BJP leader.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) criticised the BJP leader for circulating rumours at a time when India is fighting against the Covid-19 outbreak.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh said, "The BJP leader (Verma) should be ashamed that he is spreading rumours and hate even in these times."
Netizens react
Netizens took to Twitter claiming that the Delhi Police has been clarifying on the said video for the last 4 days but the only tweet deleted by @DCPEastDelhi was the one replied to BJP MP Parvesh Verma's tweet.
Delhi Covid-19 update
Coronavirus cases in the national capital climbed to 8,895 following a single-day spike of 425. No Covid-19 patient died on May 14, but the number of deaths jumped from 115 to 123 as the Delhi government took into account cases that were not reported earlier.
