Zee News Shares Prank Video as Real Incident of Person Urinating on Food
Some social media users also added a false communal twist to the viral video.
Fact-Check : The viral video was a prank video and not a real incident.
(Photo: The Quint)
Hindi news outlet Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand has shared a prank video showing a man pouring some liquid into a container carrying an Indian sweet, gulab jamun, as an actual incident of a person urinating on food made for a wedding reception.
What is the claim?:
The news outlet shared the clipped video with a caption, "बंदे ने शादी के लिए बन रहे खाने में किया कुछ ऐसा, देखकर आएगी घिन ". [Translation: You will be disgusted to see what the man did with the food being prepared for the wedding]
In the story, the news organisation referred to other instances where people were seen spitting on fruits and vegetables but didn't mention any details about where the video was from.
An archive of the post can be found here.
The same video was also shared by other social media users, including Dr Richa Rajpoot, Social Media head for the UP BJP Youth Wing.
Rajpoot insinuated that the video showed a Muslim man urinating and asked what kind of "jihad" this was. The video had over 56,000 views while the story was being written.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Archives of more such posts can be found here and here.)
The truth:
The viral video showed the clipped part of a prank video.
In the original video, which is longer than the viral one, we can see that the liquid is being poured from a bottle placed near the man's groin area, making it look like he is peeing into the vessel.
How did we find that out?:
While going through the comments, we found a reply that led us to an Instagram post by a page called "Ashiq.Bilota".
The video shows a flipped and extended version of the viral video.
Towards the end of the video, one could see the man turning back and revealing a bottle that was being used to pour the liquid into the container.
Extended version of the video shows a bottle.
We also checked the Instagram page and found that it posts several such adult prank videos.
Conclusion: While we were unable to find the details of the original video independently, it is clear that a prank video was shared as a real incident, with some people adding a communal colour to it.
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