Amritsar, October 22: Pictures and a video are going viral on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter claiming that driver of the Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU train that ran over a crowd, killing 60 people, is a Muslim and has committed suicide. Although the pictures and the video have gone viral, the netizen who first made the claim has deleted his post.
The viral images show a man in a pink t-shirt hanging from a bridge. Many people are sharing the pictures saying he was the driver of the Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU that was involved in the Amritsar tragedy. Another post that is being widely shared claims the driver of the train is one Imtiyaz Ali, apparently to give a communal angle to the train accident. Amritsar MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu 'Adopts Families of Those Killed in Train Tragedy'.
Along with the pictures, a statement narrating the sequence of events by the actual train driver Arvind Kumar is also doing the rounds purportedly as his suicide note. However, both the claims - the train driver is a Muslim, and he has committed suicide - are false. There fake pictures and posts are misleading and carry utterly incorrect information.
Saw a crowd of ppl around track. Immediately applied emergency brakes while continuously blowing horn. Still some ppl came under it.Train was about to stop when people started pelting stones & so I started the train for passengers' safety:DMU train's driver.#AmritsarTrainAccident pic.twitter.com/2dihtcO9Ri
— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2018
The truth is the driver of the Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU train has not committed suicide. At present, he is in the custody of Punjab Railways. The claimed suicide note is indeed his statement that he submitted to the officials narrating about what happened on October 19. The viral pictures are of some other person who committed suicide near Tarn Tarn area.
Secondly, the driver is not a Muslim. His name is Arvind Kumar. Several media organisations have now reported this fact.
Fact check
Train Driver of Amritsar DMU Committed Suicide
Both the claims - the train driver is a Muslim, and he has committed suicide - made on WhatsApp are false. Their fake pictures and posts are misleading and carry utterly incorrect information.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 22, 2018 08:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).