Fact check: Viral post falsely claims all accused in Delhi ISI spy network case are Muslims


A list naming seven individuals arrested in connection with an alleged Delhi-based spy network linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is being widely shared on social media following a June 16 NDTV report on the case. The names are Anas, Mohammad, Danish, Arif, Sabir, Khalid and Junaid.

X user @Warlock_mohit amplified the claim by quoting NDTV’s post and sharing a list of the alleged names of those arrested, all of whom were presented as Muslim. The post was captioned, “Always Peacefuls” — a derogatory term frequently used in Right-wing online discourse to stereotype Muslims as violent or criminal.

The post has received over 2.27 lakh views and has been reshared over 2,800 times. (Archive)

Several other X users, such as @FabulasGuy, @AmitLeliSlayer, etc., quoted NDTV’s X post carrying the report link with the same list of names.

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Fact Check

To verify this claim, we examined the NDTV report. Contrary to social media posts suggesting that all seven accused were Muslims, the report identified the arrested individuals as Anas alias Anas Tyagi, Mohit alias Yogi, Deepak alias Deepak Agrola, Arif alias Pradhan, Karanveer Singh, Jatan and Sabir. According to NDTV, the seven were allegedly linked to a network operated by Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist Shahzad Bhatti and his associate Ajmal Gujjar.

The same names were was mentioned in reports by The Hindu, India Today and several other outlets.

A June 19 report by The Print mentioned that police arrested five more individuals in a second operation — Sohail, Sonu Meena, Sachin Kumar Meena, Md Kaif, and Md Rihan.

Alt News accessed the two press releases issued by the Delhi Police special cell in connection with the case. Both documents confirm the above-mentioned names. The second press release, comprising the five individuals apprehended in the second operation, also mentioned three more names who had been arrested in a previous operation — Soyab, Anmol Rai alias Annu and Ravi Kashyap. It also mentioned the family details of the five arrested recently — Sohail (26) s/o Shamshad Ali, Sonu Meena (30) s/o Mewa Lal Meena, Sachin Kumar Meena (20) s/o Devi Shaya Meena, Md Kaif (21) s/o Lallu, and Md Rihan (20) s/o Md Shakeel. 

To sum up, the viral claim is false. Records related to the case show that at least five of the arrested individuals are Hindus. Moreover, neither the NDTV report nor police records mention any Danish, Khalid or Junaid among the 12 people arrested so far. The list circulating on social media therefore misrepresents the identities of the accused and seeks to give the alleged crime a communal colour.


This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.