No, man pouring alcohol isn’t in charge of police outpost in Uttar Pradesh

By: Chandan Borgohain
May 18 2023

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Context

A photo showing a person sitting on a chair and pouring alcohol into a glass has been widely circulated on social media. Those sharing the photo claim that the man seen in the photo is the police station in charge of the Khata Kheri outpost in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. On May 11, a user (@imMRaghav) posted the photo on Twitter, the caption (written in Hindi) read, “This gentleman “Imran”, who is sitting in the chair and enjoying alcohol with ‘chakna’, is the in-charge of Khata Kheri outpost in Saharanpur.” The tweet has gained over 6.8k views and over 170 retweets. We found multiple users sharing the photo with similar claims.

In Fact

We found the photo in a report published by India Today on May 12, 2023. According to the report, the incident took place at the Khata Kheri police station in Saharanpur. The report identified the man sitting in the chair and consuming alcohol inside the police station as Imran but did not mention his occupation. It added that the police station in charge is Sachin Tyagi, and had been suspended in connection with the incident.

The same photo was tweeted by news outlet Bharat Samachar on May 11, which stated that the incident took place at a police outpost in Saharanpur district. Saharanpur Police responded to the tweet saying a case has been filed against the person at Mandi police station and the outpost in charge has been “suspended for negligence."

We also reached out to Abhimanyu Manglik, the Saharanpur superintendent of police, who confirmed to us that the accused is not police personnel. “The incident took place in March this year in the Khata Kheri police outpost. The man seen in the photo is a common person and not police personnel,” Manglik told Logically Facts. “The in-charge of Khata Kheri was suspended in connection with the incident,” he added.

Sankalp Neb, a local reporter, confirmed that the person seen in the photo is Imran, a Sahanranpur district resident. “He was consuming alcohol while sitting on Tyagi's chair,” Neb said. Neb added that Imran had another case against him at the time that he was pictured sitting inside the station - Imran was later arrested for the case.

The Verdict

The person seen pouring alcohol while sitting in a police station is Imran, a resident of Khata Kheri in Saharanpur. A police official and a local reporter have both confirmed to us that this man is not police personnel but a resident of the area. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.