Times Now says video of mosque being vandalised is fake. The video turns out to be genuine

A viral video showing a man climbing a mosque and hoisting a flag created some confusion on Tuesday. Multiple handles on Twitter shared it, including Rana Ayyub.

Soon after doubts were raised about the authenticity of the video, Ayyub deleted the tweet. The Wire also did a story claiming the video was authentic. Though an earlier version of the story said the mosque is located in Ashok Vihar, Delhi, The Wire later clarified that the mosque is in Ashok Nagar.

But the moment of confusion happened when the Delhi police put out a statement saying that the information being put out is false and that “no such incident has taken place in the area of Ashok Vihar”.

Times Now’s Padmaja Joshi ran with it and began questioning people for spreading fake news based on this tweet. She asked, “Will action be taken against everyone who is circulating this video which is fake?”

She even accused a panellist of “fueling tensions in Delhi”. Joshi said, “You have written the most disgusting thing. You have said there is an attempt to replicate Babri Masjid.”

The reality of the situation is that the Delhi police was technically right because the incident in question did not happen in Ashok Vihar, it happened in Ashok Nagar. The confusion seemed to have happened because there are two mosques by the same name — Badi Masjid — in both Ashok Nagar and Ashok Vihar.

The mosque in the video is the one in Ashok Nagar. Multiple sources have now confirmed it was indeed vandalised and then set on fire. Alt News did a fact-check on the same, verifying the video.

But these details don’t really seem to matter to Times Now.

Rana Ayyub later posted the video again on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has put up an advisory for channels to avoid airing content which “promoted anti-national attitudes”.