New Delhi: West Delhi BJP MP Parvesh Verma Thursday posted a two-month old video of Muslims offering namaz in large numbers in the national capital to claim they’re violating lockdown and social distancing rules, but was called out by Delhi Police that asked him to “verify before posting and spreading rumours”.
Both Verma and Delhi Police have, however, deleted their tweets.
The BJP MP, in his tweet in Hindi, wrote: “Does any religion permit this kind of behaviour in the wake of coronavirus? Lockdown and social distancing norms have been torn to shreds…”
He further asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to deduct the salaries of maulvis to stop such practices.
Delhi Police, however, Friday responded to Verma’s tweet, saying the video is old and “is being used with a malicious intent to spread rumour”.
“This is totally false. An old video is being used with a malicious intent to spread rumour. Please verify before posting and spreading rumours,” read the tweet by DCP East Delhi.
Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh shared the Delhi Police’s tweet and said it was shameful of the BJP that even under a crisis its leaders were busy spreading hate and rumours.
According to fact-checking website Alt News, the video was posted on Twitter on 20 March, five days before the nationwide lockdown came into effect.
The 1.27-minute video shows several Muslims offering namaz together on a road in East Delhi’s Patparganj.
Delhi BJP’s IT cell head Abhishek Dubey had shared the same video on 20 March and wrote people in Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s constituency have no fear of coronavirus.
Also read: BJP’s Parvesh Verma stands by Shaheen Bagh remark, says Muslims want to take over India
Booked for ‘hate speeches’ earlier
Verma, son of late chief minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma, is not new to controversies.
He had in January called protesters at Shaheen Bagh “rapists and murderers”, which was criticised severely by politicians and people.
In the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections earlier this year, Verma had even promised to demolish mosques that were built on government land in his constituency if the BJP came to power in Delhi.
He was booked twice in January by the Election Commission for making “hate speeches”.
Also read: Amit Shah, Adityanath, Anurag Thakur — 5 most provocative speeches of Delhi elections