A police officer said: The claims made by the woman in her post put out on X do not match the facts found by the local police
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The driver of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nazia Elahi Khan, opted for a snooze at the wheel and met with an accident. Nazia, notorious for her Islamophobic remarks, found the situation fit to target Muslims and blamed them for Monday’s accident in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district.
Nazia put out a video through her X account claiming that her car faced an accident due to some Muslims, who, she alleged, targeted her car.
While breaking down in the video, Nazia claimed that as she headed for Ganga Snan at Maha Kumbh after attending a meeting in Delhi her car was chased by some Muslims when she reached Etah. Nazia was accompanied by YouTuber Priya Chaturvedi and an unidentified young girl. Nazia alleged that the individuals following her crashed into her car, causing a serious accident. According to her, Priya sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a hospital.
https://twitter.com/ElahiNazia1/status/189385010668153283
On the basis of her claims, some news outlets and social media influencers aligned with the Hindutva ideology published reports and amplified the incident.
However, a police officer in Kanpur said that the police investigation found the car accident was caused by the driver falling asleep while driving the car.
“Prima facie, the incident is related to road accident which was caused by the driver’s snoozing. The claims made by the woman in her post put out on X do not match the facts found by the local police,” said the police officer in a video statement.
When the police asked the driver about the incident, he said that the accident occurred as he had slept while driving.
“The local police asked the passengers and driver of the car to file a written complaint with the police, but they refused to submit any complaint. The woman was provided with an alternate vehicle to continue her travel,” said the officer.
Despite the clarification by the police, Nazia Elahi did not remove her post containing false claims about the accident.
Prominent fact-checker Mohammed Zubair slammed her and the news outlets for not removing their claims or adding the police statement in their reports.
“Despite clarification by UP Police multiple times that it was an accident because the taxi driver fell asleep while driving, neither BJP Minority leader Nazia Elahi, Nor Anti-Muslim propaganda website @OpIndia_in @UnSubtleDesi have neither corrected themselves or added police clarification. They instead continue to blame Muslims for attacking Nazia and her friends,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal Jai demanded a case against Nazia Elahi for levelling false allegations.
“The lies keep getting amplified. Why was she lying in the first place? Why hasn’t there been a case against her?” she said.
