Scripted video shared a Muslim man adulterating pani puri before serving. – FactCrescendo | The leading fact-checking website in India

The video is not a real incident neither is related to any particular community. The video is scripted.

A video showing a man with a covered face caught mixing toilet cleaner in the water along with other ingredients to make Pani Puri is widely circulating on social media. Users claim that this is how people adulterate our food by mixing toilet cleaners. When caught the man reveals his name to be “Zubair” in front of the camera.

The post says that the man in the video is “Zubair” and warns the viewers not to buy any food product from the Muslim community. 

The caption of the post states, “A jihadi named Zubair was feeding people by mixing harpic in the water of Pani Puri. If you buy anything from jihadis, there will be a risk of losing your life.”

(Hindi: जुबेर नाम का जिहादी, पानी पताशे के पानी में हार्पिक मिलाकर लोगों को खिला रहा था. जिहादियों से कुछ भी सामान खरीदेंगे तो आपकी जान जाने का रिस्क रहेगा।)

Facebook Post | Archive Link

Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google; whose results led us to a Facebook Page named Gyan Bhandar that posted the same video in their playlist named as “Social Awareness” on 7 July 2022.

The caption of this video states, “Disclaimer: This video is a complete fiction, all the events in the video are scripted and made for entertainment purpose, it does not promote any kind of activity or defame any kind of ritual. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

The disclaimer clearly means that the viral video is a scripted one. The video has not relation with the reality.

View Facebook post here.

We found that another version of the video was posted on a verified YouTube channel named Social Message on 12 July 2022. This channel posts videos that target at sharing a social message to the users.

WHY DO YOU NEED MORE CONTEXT?

Users may wonder that staged or not, the video intends to spread awareness about adulteration of food and caution people who eat street food.

However, Fact Crescendo has debunked several such staged and scripted videos, which were viral with communal claims. 

Many times these fictional videos are shared to spread misinformation and create communal tension.

For example:

1. A “staged” video was shared with a false communal claim that Muslim men duped Hindu girls posing as Hindu boys. (Read Fact-Check)

2. A “scripted” video was shared with a baseless claim that a Muslim boy was captured stealing the bike of a young girl. (Read Fact-Check)

3. A “fictional” video was shared as a real incident of child kidnapping. In India, rumors of child kidnappings have already led to several deaths in mob lynchings. (Read Fact-Check)

4. A “made-up” video from the same Sanjjanaa Galrani page went viral as a real incident of a man being electrocuted while using mobile phone plugged for charging. (Read Fact-Check)

5. A scripted video went viral as a real incident of a dowry case where the groom refused to marry the bride because of less dowry. Times of India falsely reported this video as well. (Read Fact-Check)

6. A scripted video went viral as a real incident showing a Muslim tailor harassing a Hindu woman. (Read Fact-Check)

In the name of “social awareness” or “motivational” or “Comedy” videos, these scripted videos are solely made to garner views and hits on social media. 

Sometimes they are shared out of context and sometimes with outright false and dangerous communal claims. Therefore, users need to know the full context of these videos.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The video is not a real incident neither is related to any particular community. The video is a scripted one that is aimed to spread a social message to the viewers.

Title:Scripted video shared a Muslim man adulterating pani puri before serving.

Fact Check By: Drabanti Ghosh 

Result: False