An image of a burqa-clad young Muslim girl sitting in an office and surrounded by policemen is going viral on social media. A number of people are sharing the picture with the claim that the girl is Maharashtra's first Muslim woman Superintendent of Police (SP) and that she violated the dress code on her very first day of the job.
The picture is being used to target a particular community as well as to slam the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government for allowing the Muslim woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer to disrespect the police force by not wearing the designated uniform.
The claim
Multiple Facebook and Twitter users have claimed that the girl chose to wear a burqa instead of a khaki on her first day as an SP. They further cited that she had qualified the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exam from Urdu-medium.
"First IPS from Urdu medium becomes an SP in Maharashtra. On her first day, she adopted the Islamic dress code instead of police dress code. Congratulations to the Shiv Sena government. Its contribution to Ghazwa-e-Hind will be admirable," wrote a Facebook user while someone on Twitter said, "Unlimited power outside and within the community. Nobody has guts to ask her about the uniform. This is atrocious. Height of appeasement politics."
Fact-Check
As we at International Business Times, India, set out to verify the claim, we found it to be untrue and completely baseless.
A simple reverse image search of the viral picture took us to a March 5 video report by The Times Of India titled, "Women's Day: 14-year-old girl becomes DSP 'for a day' in Maharashtra's Buldhana."
As it turns out, the image is from a special campaign that was organised by the Buldhana district administration a week prior to the International Women's Day 2020. The girl in the picture is a 14-year-old school student named Sahrish Kanwal who was made a District Superintendent of Police (DSP) in the district as part of the initiative.
We also came across a post from the official Twitter handle of the Buldhana Police which talked about the Kanwal's participation in the drive. "I want to be a police superintendent. It's important to me' says Sahrish Kanwal, one-day police superintendent, district school, Malkapur," read the March 4 post in Marathi.
Thus, we hereby conclude that all the claims made about the burqa-clad young Muslim girl are false.
