Scripted video of schoolchildren ‘romancing’ in an alleyway in Delhi viral as real – Alt News

A video of a boy and two girls standing in an alleyway has gone viral on social media. In the video, the boy can be seen hugging the girls while the cameraperson who seemingly records the incident from his balcony, can be heard passing several comments in the background. Towards the end of the video, a young man beside the cameraperson throws water on them and chases them away. At 1:31 of the video, they mention that these sights were common in Delhi.

A communal spin was added to this video with the claim that the boy in the video was a Muslim who was committing “Love Jihad” by duping the Hindu girls using a Hindu name. (1, 2)

Several social media users shared this video, attempting to raise awareness among parents who send their children to schools and colleges. (1, 2)

Some users questioned Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal while sharing the clip. (1, 2)

Fact-Check

On a closer inspection of the video, we noticed a still in the clip that displayed a disclaimer which reads “The content made in this video should be considered for entertainment purpose only. Information contained herein is not intended to be source of advice or credit analysis with respect to the information presented.” This implied that the video in question is scripted.

Through a keyword search on Facebook, we found that the original video is of 5 minutes 39 seconds. It has been shared from various accounts.

To probe further, Alt News did a keyword search on CrowdTangle. Consequently, we discovered that the video was originally uploaded from a page called ‘Ankit Jatuskran‘. However, the video has been deleted from this account which is why the thumbnails are not visible on CrowdTangle.

The page named Ankit Jatuskran contains several live videos that feature the same man who is seen in the viral video. From this page, we were led to another Facebook page called, Ankur Jatuskran which is mentioned as a co-creator in one of the videos on the page. This page also features the same man. The description of the page reads, “This page is all about my prank videos on my YouTube channel.” The YouTube page also contains the scripted videos that are on the Facebook pages.

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Boom Live published a fact-check of the viral clip on July 31 which contains a screenshot of the video from Ankit Jatuskran’s page. They consequently fact-checked the video to be scripted.

On July 15, Alt News debunked another scripted video of a child getting kidnapped uploaded on Facebook by Ankur Jatuskaran. The video was mistakenly shared by users as a real incident.

Hence a scripted video of a boy and two girls hugging in an alleyway has been circulating on social media with the claim that it is genuine. Some users also shared the dramatised clip with a communal spin.

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