A video of a burst LPG cylinder found under a train is going viral on social media with the claim that “a Muslim man threw an Indane cylinder filled with gas on the tracks in Haldwani”.
BOOM found this claim to be false; according to our investigation, the viral video - shot on July 5 2022 in Haldwani - does not show a Muslim man throwing the cylinder on the track. Haldwani Railway Police had registered a complaint against a person named Gangaram for throwing a cylinder on the track.
The 2.11 minute-long video shows a person taking out a burst LPG cylinder from under a train. The train is then seen passing, soon after the cylinder is removed. A seperate video has also been added at the end, in which a woman claims that this incident took place near Amla Phatak in Haldwani.
The caption accompanying the video on Facebook reads, "A Jihadi thew a cylinder filled with Indane gas on the railway track in front of a train in Haldwani. Due to the grace of Baba Kedarnath an accident did not happen. Where are these people settled beside the railway tracks belonging to the Railway Administration. Lakhs of acres of railway land have been encroached. They should be removed from the railway track and the patrolling system should be increased."
This video was also being shared on Twitter with the exact same claim.
We also received this video on our tipline number 7700906588.
Fact Check
While investigating the viral video, BOOM scanned through the replies to the tweets sharing the video. We found a reply made by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) (North Eastern Railway) on June 5, 2023.
It read, "Regarding the video, it was told by Sub-Inspector of Resub Chowki Haldwani that the said video is dated-05.07.22 (old video) in which a case has been registered against the Government vs. Gangaram under FIR no. - 131/22under Railway Act section/174, 153."
Since not much information was given about the incident in this reply of RPF, we contacted Kathgodam RPF station and an officer there informed us about the whole incident.
For more information, we reached out to Kathgodam RPF station and spoke to an officer, who provided details about the incident.
He said, "This video is from last year. A person named Gangaram, a resident of Pilbhit in UP, lived near the area where the incident took place. On 5 July 2022, he was going to his house to get the empty gas cylinder filled. He had to cross the railway track to go to the gas cylinder filling point. But then a train came on that track and Gangaram ran away throwing the cylinder on the track to save himself. Since the RPF escort present in the train saw him doing this, the jawans caught him after the train stopped. After this, a case was registered against him and he was sent to jail. He was also in jail for about three months. We had also contacted the Pilbhit police and investigated his background, so we did not get any suspicious information."
Furthermore, he also denied the claim of the person who threw the cylinder on the track was a Muslim and said that “Gangaram is not a Muslim but a Hindu".
