Man Who Said ‘Mandir Chahiye’ Is Alive And Isn’t COVID Positive

The man, Jitendra Gupta, a resident of Delhi’s Patparganj, said he is healthy and has not contracted COVID.

Social media users falsely claimed that man seen in the viral video has passed away due to COVID-19.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video has gone viral on the internet where a man can be heard saying, “We don’t want roads or food. We want Ram Mandir,” with the claim that he was COVID positive and had died due to lack of oxygen in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow.

However, The Quint’s WebQoof team found that the claim is false and identified the man as 41-year-old Jitendra Gupta, a resident of Patparganj in East Delhi. He told us that he is alive and healthy and has not contracted COVID.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video: "ये जो वही साहब आंखे फाड़ के कहते थे…हमें अस्पताल नहीं चाहिये, मंदिर चाहिये...खबर आ रही है कि ऑक्सीजन ना मिलने से इसकी लखनऊ में मौत हो गई!!"

(Translation: This is the man who screamed his eyes out…we don’t want hospitals; we want temple…News is coming in that he has died in Lucknow due to lack of oxygen.)

An archived link of the post can be found here.

Many social media users posted the claim on Facebook and Twitter. The archived links can be found here, here, here, and here.

The Quint received a query about a similar claim being made in an image on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We came across a post by Ravinder Negi, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who called out the viral claim and said that the man in the viral video is his friend and social worker Jitu Gupta, who lives in New Delhi’s Patparganj area.

He said that Gupta is alive and healthy and does have any kind of illness.

We then got in touch with Negi who confirmed that Gupta is his childhood friend and he is alive.

HAVEN’T CONTRACTED COVID: MAN IN VIRAL VIDEO

Further, speaking to The Quint’s WebQoof team, Gupta said that he is healthy and the claim being made on social media is false.

“The claim is false. I haven’t visited Lucknow. I haven’t contracted COVID either and I am healthy and well. My wife and I got our first dose of vaccination on 15 May,” Gupta added.

He added that the misinformation has caused much stress to his family and that “people shouldn’t stoop so low”. He also shared a video with us.

Meanwhile, Gupta filed a complaint with the cyber cell of the Madhu Vihar police on Tuesday, 18 May, regarding the viral claims on social media.

The viral footage has been taken from a ScoopWhoop video uploaded in 2019 and Gupta can be heard speaking at 41 seconds.

Clearly, social media users falsely claimed that the man seen in the viral video has passed away due to COVID-19.

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