Yesterday, senior AAP leaders made the shocking accusation — that the Delhi Police themselves had set fire to buses in the national capital.
”An unbiased investigation should be launched into what these people in uniform were putting in the buses from white and yellow cans before they were set ablaze. At whose behest was this done?” tweeted Delhi’s deputy CM and AAP leader Sisodia.
The claim was based on some pictures and videos, which supposedly showed a Delhi police official carrying a container towards a bus. While there were numerous news outlets and journalists present at the scene, they haven’t reported that buses were set on fire by the Delhi police themselves. Neither has the claim been reported by any mainstream media outlet.
But there are several sources that categorically deny that the fire was started by the Delhi police. This was a clip from left-leaning channel NDTV, in which an eyewitness clearly says that the buses were set on fire by protesters.
A similar assertion was made by journalist Arvind Gunasekar, who was present at the spot. “No. It was the mob which set these two wheelers on fire, police personnel tried dousing the fire.I was there…This mob was unruly and this is not the way to protest !Everyone should come together to condemn this violence and destruction of public property,” he tweeted in response to a tweet that claimed that the Delhi Police had set the fire.
A similar report was made by Saahil Menghani, who is a correspondent at CNN News 18. “Policemen were DOUSING and not fuelling fire. There was water in the can. One can even head someone in the video saying “bujh gayi,” he quoted police officials as saying.
And finally, the issue was also clarified by a police official who was present at the scene. “We were carrying water,” a police official says when he is shown the viral video.
Given how no mainstream outlet has reported that the Delhi Police set fire to the buses, but several eyewitnesses and media outlets have reported that the fire was started by protesters, it can be shown that the claim made by AAP leaders is false.
