Video Of Man Tearing Bike Seat Covers In Uttarakhand Shared With False Communal Spin
BOOM found that the man in the viral video is Dheeraj Aggarrwal, who was caught tearing bike seat covers in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, due to a parking dispute in August 2024.
CLAIM
Video shows Mohammad Junaid tearing the seat covers of vehicles parked on the roadside to boost the business of his bike cover and puncture shop
FACT CHECK
The man in the video is Dheeraj Aggarrwal, who was caught tearing bike seat covers in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, due to a parking dispute in August 2024. Aggarrwal runs a coaching center near the spot where the video was shot.
An old video of a man using a blade to tear seat covers of parked vehicles in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, has surfaced with false communal claims that a Muslim man damaged the vehicles to boost his puncture and seat cover business.
BOOM found that the man in the viral video is Dheeraj Aggarrwal who was caught tearing bike covers due to a parking dispute. We spoke to Aggarwal, who runs a coaching center near the spot where the video was shot; He told BOOM that he vandalised the seats as he was upset with people parking their vehicles there.
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FACT-CHECK: False communal claim added to incident
Taking a hint from the logo of 'Uttrakhand Exclusive' in the viral video, we found the Facebook and Instagram page of this handle. BOOM then reached out to the admin of the page - Gaurav Wasudev who stated that the viral video was uploaded on his page in August 2024, which was later deleted.
Wasudev told BOOM, "The incident in this video is from Dobhal Chowk in Nehru gram area in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The person in the video is a teacher named Dheeraj Aggarrwal."
BOOM then reached out to Dheeraj Aggarrwal who confirmed that he is the man in the viral video. Aggarrwal stated that he runs a coaching center in Dehradun near the spot where the incident took place and the video is from a public parking near his coaching center.
Aggarrwal told BOOM, "This happened on August 5, 2024. Someone made a video of me damaging seats of two-wheelers and circulated it on social media. People would park their vehicles in the parking lot near our coaching center and leave. So, to teach them a lesson I did that. When this matter reached the police on August 6, the police rebuked me for this act but no case was registered," added Aggarrwal. He further added that the video is being shared misidentifying him as one 'Mohammad Junaid' to spread communal tensions.
BOOM reached out to Raipur Police, Dehradun, Uttarakhand who confirmed the incident is from there and also dismissed the communal claims being shared on social media.
Station Officer Pradeep Negi told BOOM, "This is a case from August 2024, the coaching center operator had a problem with people parking their vehicles there. That's why he did this. However, no FIR was registered in this case."
(This story was originally published by boom, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
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Pope urges 'all people of all nations' to silence arms and overcome divisions in Christmas address
Vatican City, Dec 25: Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.
The pontiff's “Urbi et Orbi” — “To the City and the World” — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even (with) our enemies.”
"I invite every individual, and all people of all nations ... to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,'' the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to throngs of people below.
The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God's mercy, which “unties every knot; it tears down every wall of division; it dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.”
He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, “particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” as well as Lebanon and Syria “at this most delicate time.”
Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by “the ongoing clash of arms.” The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.
Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica, as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome.
Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.
Pilgrims submitted to security controls before entering the Holy Door, amid new security fears following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany. Many paused to touch the door as they passed and made the sign of the cross upon entering the basilica dedicated to St. Peter, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church.
“You feel so humble when you go through the door that once you go through is almost like a release, a release of emotions,'' said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. "... It's almost like a release of emotions, you feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See I am getting emotional. It's just a beautiful experience.”
A Chrismukkah miracle as Hanukkah and Christmas coincide
Hanukkah, Judaism's eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.
The calendar confluence has inspired some religious leaders to host interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city's Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.
While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it's taking place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.
Iraqi Christians persist in their faith
Christians in Nineveh Plains attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday at the Mar Georgis church in the center of Telaskaf, Iraq, with security concerns about the future. “We feel that they will pull the rug out from under our feet at any time. Our fate is unknown here,” said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.
Iraq's Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million.
But the community has steadily dwindled since the 2003 US-led invasion and further in 2014 when the Islamic State group swept through the area. The exact number of Christians left in Iraq is unclear, but they are thought to number several hundred thousand.
German celebrations muted by market attack
German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that “there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to “stand together” and that “hate and violence must not have the last word.”
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect's X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes. He criticized authorities for failing to combat “the Islamification of Germany” and voiced support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
