Since the incident of Hathras, the government and police of Uttar Pradesh are on the target of the people regarding the safety of women. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2019 report, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of crimes against women out of all the states of India.

Meanwhile, a picture of a man wearing a red turban is becoming viral on social media. It is also being claimed that this person saved a girl from gang rape and killed two of the four miscreants who attacked the girl. This person took three bullets to save the girl and now he is in critical condition. It is being said in the claim that this incident happened near Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

A Twitter user named Dr. Neeran Gautam shared the picture with the caption, "A Brave Heart was traveling near Shahjahanpur in UP. He saved an unknown girl from rape by four Gangsters and killed two of them. He got three gunshots and serious in the Hospital. No media has given the news."

This post has been retweeted over 330 times. 

A Facebook user Sanjaya Randhawa also shared the image saying, "A Brave Sikh was traveling near Shahjahanpur in UP. He saved an unknown girl from rape by four Gangsters and killed two of them. He got three gunshots and serious in the Hospital. No media has given the news. Million of Salute to this braveheart social soldier. If only 10% of the Society in a Big nation like ours are there I guarantee that no vagabonds would be around our sisters n daughters."

This post has been also reshared over 180 times. 

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found this claim to be false. Shahjahanpur police responded to the viral claim and clarified the incident is not from the district.

Shahjahanpur police wrote, “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 rumor.” (translated from Hindi)

With the help of reverse image search, we found an article published by a Punjabi website on March 14, 2019, according to which, 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 also found an on the incident by “The Times of India”, stating that 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.

Delhi's CM Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted on the incident. 

In conclusion, a year-old incident from Punjab where a man saved a girl from getting kidnapped is being falsely shared to be from UP with a twist.   Also, though the man received gunshot injuries while saving the girl, there are no reports that say he killed two of the attackers.