Photo Of Youth Burning Tricolour Is From 2016

A collage of five images showing a youth burning a tricolour is circulating on social media with claims that the incident is recent and the person seen in the photographs should be arrested soon.

BOOM found the claim to be misleading as the images are old. The man in the photograph, identified as Dileepan Mahendran is a 25-year old from Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. According to reports Mahendran was taken into remand by the police in 2016 for burning the tricolour.

India is celebrating 75 years of Independence dubbed as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Besides educational institutions, citizens all over the states hoisted national flags on August 15.

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The text on the collage reads, "Share so much that he should be caught immediately. Brothers, he should not be released, the one who does not share further, we will give you Bharat Mata's oath."

(Original text in Hindi: इतना शेयर करो की तुरंत पकड़ा जाये भाईयों ये छुटना नहीं चाहिए जो आगे शेयर ना करे उसको भारत माता कि कसम है)

The posts have been captioned on Facebook as, "This evil who disrespects the country's flag so much should be punished, should not be spared, should be under the custody of the law."

(Original caption in Hindi: "देश के झण्डे का इतना बड़ा अनादर करने वाले इस दुष्ट को सजा मिलनी चाहिए, बचना नही चाहिए, कानून की गिरफ्त मे होना चाहिए")

View the Facebook post here.

BOOM also received a verification request on its WhatsApp helpline (+91 77009 06588) to check.

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Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search with the images used on the collage and found The News Minute article dated February 8, 2016. The article was headlined as, "He burnt Indian flag because govt took no action, says TN youth's lawyer alleging police torture"

The report identified the youth as Dileepan Mahendran, who was arrested by the police on February 1, 2016, following the images that went viral. Mahendran posted images of him burning the Indian flag. The post was taken down later. According to reports, Mahendran burnt the flag because he 'felt angst against the system.' Mahendran's lawyer also raised allegations of torture by the cops.

The New Indian Express reported that a pilot C R Naveen Kumar filed a complaint with the police to initiate legal steps against Mahendran. He was booked under multiple sections of Indian Penal Code including Prevention of Insults to National Honor Act and IT Act, reported Times of India on February 2, 2016.

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Photo Of Youth Burning Tricolour Is From 2016

BOOM found Dileepan Mahendran, who is seen in the social media posts burning the tricolour, was arrested in 2016.

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