The Hathras incident led to nationwide outrage and drew flak for the state government and police. According to a recent report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against women in 2018-19.

And now, a picture of a man in red turban is circulating on social media with the claim that he saved a girl from getting gang raped, and killed two of the four attackers. The claim says the incident took place near Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and the man is in a serious condition after getting shot thrice.

The tweet says, “A Brave Heart was travelling near Shahjahanpur in UP. He saved an unknown girl from rape from four Gangsters and killed two of them. He got three gunshots and serious in Hospital. No media has given the news.”

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. The incident took place in Tarn Taran district of Punjab in March last year. The man in the picture is Chetan Singh, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in Punjab. He did receive gunshot injuries while saving the girl, but there are no reports that say he killed two of the attackers.

Similar claims are also circulating on Facebook. The archived versions can be seen here and here.

AFWA probe

We found a tweet from the official Twitter handle of Shahjahanpur police in response to a claim, saying the incident is not from the district.

The statement in Hindi translates to, “It is being spread on social media that a brave Sikh man rescued a girl in Shahjahanpur during a journey, and he was shot and injured by the miscreants. It is to be noted that no such incident took place in Shahjahanpur district, and it is a baseless rumour.”

#shahjahanpurpol~ ” ” #UPPolice @UPGovt @CMOfficeUP @UPPolice @KPGBJP @adgzonebareilly @News18UP pic.twitter.com/jksGz6Dpdi

— SHAHJAHANPUR POLICE (@shahjahanpurpol) October 14, 2020

Taking a cue from this, with the help of appropriate keywords, we did a reverse search of the picture on Bing and found the same picture carried in an article last year in Punjabi.

According to the article published on March 14, 2019, the man is Chetan Singh, president of the AAP district unit of Patiala. He was shot while rescuing a girl from six miscreants trying to abduct her in Tarn Taran, says the article.

We found several other media reports from 2019 on the incident.

According to “The Times of India”, Chetan sustained bullet injuries on his neck while trying to save the girl from kidnappers at Patti in Tarn Taran district.

Quoting IGP Surinder Pal Singh Parmar, the article said the girl had come to Patti to get her Aadhaar card, and while returning home, six youths tried to kidnap her in a car. Chetan who was at Patti to meet a relative happened to be at the spot and intervened. The article also has a picture of Chetan undergoing treatment at a hospital.

AAP Patiala distt president Chetan Singh fired upon & injured while trying to save a girl from some men who were trying to abduct her. Proud of u Chetan. I wish for ur fast recovery

Law & order situation deteriorating by the day in Punjab. Capt. govt has been a complete failure! https://t.co/5159DMyLpX

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 14, 2019

The “Financial Express” and “Business Today” had also reported Kejriwal’s response.

However, we couldn’t find any report from credible sources saying Chetan killed two of the attackers while trying to save the girl.

Hence, it is clear that the incident is more than a year old and took place in Punjab and not UP. Also, though the man received gunshot injuries while saving the girl, there are no reports that say he killed two of the attackers.